MCDF CEO Meets Partners at FFD4 and NDB Annual Meeting to Strengthen Cooperation

Multilateral Cooperation Center for Development Finance (MCDF) CEO Zhongjing Wang attended the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4) in Sevilla, Spain, from 30 June to 3 July, and the 2025 New Development Bank (NDB) Annual Meetings in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 4-5 July. During the mission, CEO Wang joined MCDF partner events and bilateral meetings with finance ministers and other senior officials focused on promoting high-quality connectivity infrastructure investment.

CEO Wang was invited to participate in activities in Seville organized by the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF), the 2025 Chair of the MCDF Coordination Committee (CC), alongside CAF’s Board of Directors meeting. CEO Wang, together with Mr. Frederic Wiltmann, MCDF Program Team Head, Ms. Rui Mi, MCDF’s Acting Head of Governance, and Mr. Juan Miranda, Senior Advisor to the MCDF CEO, met CAF management, including President Sergio Diaz-Granados, Executive Vice President Gianpiero Leoncini, and Vice President Gabriel Felpeto.

In these courtesy meetings, CEO Wang expressed his appreciation for Executive Vice President Leoncini serving as Chair of the CC meeting on 23 June in Beijing and his participation in a high-level panel at the launch seminar for the first two volumes of the MCDF Connectivity Infrastructure Report Series on 26 June, at the 2025 Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) Annual Meeting.  

CAF management and the MCDF delegation discussed the road ahead for MCDF information and knowledge-sharing activities guided by the CC. They also took stock of the growing number of CAF connectivity infrastructure projects that have received MCDF grant support and future opportunities to support project preparation and capacity building.

While in Seville, CEO Wang and his team held bilateral meetings with Columbia Finance Minister Germán Ávila Plazas and Costa Rica Finance Minister Nogui Acosta Jaén, respectively. The Ministers discussed their transport project financing priorities and expressed interest in collaborating with MCDF. CEO Wang encouraged them to participate in MCDF’s information and knowledge-sharing events highlighting International Financial Institution standards and good practices and engage with CAF and other MCDF Implementing Partners to identify projects which could potentially receive MCDF grant support.

CEO Wang also discussed avenues for cooperation during meetings with finance ministry officials from Argentina, Mexio, and Uruguay, as well as met Mr. Daniel Best, President of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), to discuss next steps after CDB was accredited as an MCDF Implementing Partner in June.

At the NDB Annual Meetings in Rio de Janeiro, CEO Wang held courtesy meetings with NDB President Dilma Rousseff and other NDB officials, expressing his congratulations for NDB’s 10th anniversary. They discussed NDB and MCDF’s deepening partnership, including their successful virtual workshop on land and asset evaluation in involuntary resettlement cohosted with AIIB and the Asian Development Bank, and possible future opportunities to collaborate on information and knowledge-sharing activities.

While in Rio de Janeiro, the MCDF delegation also met senior officials of finance ministry delegations from Brazil, China, and Egypt. They discussed the progress of MCDF’s continuing Independent Evaluation process and preparations for the beginning of MCDF’s next phase, from 2027-2031.