This year's annual meeting is drawing a record number of attendees. More than 8,000 people have pre-registered for the meeting. But actual numbers will not become clear until the weekend, when plenary sessions and other keynote events kick off, the IDB's deputy secretary Maximo Jeria told Emerging Markets yesterday.
In terms of pre-registration, the Okinawa meeting is already some 1,000 delegates ahead of the IDB's 2004 annual meeting in Lima, Peru, Jeria said. The majority of attendees by far are Japanese, including many businessmen and local officials from the Okinawa region.
IDB president Enrique Iglesias told Emerging Markets that he was especially pleased that so many people from the business communities of Japan, China and South Korea were attending. This is strong evidence of the fast-developing economic links between Latin America and the Asia region, he said.
Iglesias noted the strong interest shown by leaders of Japanese banks in Latin America. With the "stabilization of Japan's financial system", Japanese banks are beginning to turn their attention overseas again after a long period of trauma and stagnation, he added.
More than 2,000 local Japanese businessmen and officials from Okinawa will attend seminars specially targeted toward a Japanese and Asian audience at the IDB meeting, Jeria said. There is a large contingent of bankers and businessmen from China as well as from South Korea and other Asian states including Thailand and Malaysia. The regional IDB member states are also well represented by official delegations, special guests and others, in particular Brazil and Argentina.
Several heads of state, including the presidents of Colombia and Bolivia, are attending the meeting, as well as a former president of Chile and the vice president of El Salvador. Asian Development Bank president Haruhiko Kuroda will join Iglesias in speaking at a seminar in Okinawa today. China has an especially large official delegation including senior officials from the People's Bank of China.
Japanese finance minister Sadakazu Tanigaki will accompany a number of finance ministers, deputy finance ministers, central bank governors and deputies from Asia and Latin America. Hotel accommodation in Naha City and at resort hotels has been "no problem," officials say, although they acknowledge that the distances to be traveled between hotels, the convention centre and other venues are proving to be a "bit