Multilateral Cooperation Center for Development Finance (MCDF) CEO Zhongjing Wang and his team participated in the Latin America and the Caribbean International Economic Forum on 28-29 January in Panama City, organized by CAF – Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean.
During the forum, CEO Wang met CAF’s Executive President Sergio Díaz-Granados and Executive Vice President Gianpiero Leoncini. Executive President Díaz-Granados expressed CAF’s appreciation to MCDF for supporting connectivity infrastructure development in the region and intention to further expand its partnership with MCDF in this regard.
CEO Wang thanked Executive President Díaz-Granados and his staff for CAF’s enduring trust and support for MCDF as one of its founding International Financial Institution (IFI) partners. This includes serving a consecutive year as chair of the MCDF Coordination Committee in 2026, guiding MCDF’s information and knowledge-sharing activities among IFIs and partners for promoting sustainable, high-quality connectivity investment in developing countries.
CEO Wang also welcomed CAF’s extensive implementation of MCDF connectivity project grants since becoming an accredited MCDF Implementing Partner in 2023. At the forum, he joined Executive President Díaz-Granados and Colombia officials at the launch ceremony of the Bogota Multimodal Integration Terminal project, which is supported by a USD2.5 million MCDF project preparation grant and being implemented by CAF.
Speaking in the forum’s roundtable on strategic cooperation between Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and Asia, CEO Wang discussed how MCDF’s partnership approach seeks to highlight standards and good practices that can help deliver connectivity projects, financing, and behind-the-border policies needed to bring the regions’ economies closer together and unlock trade and sustainable growth.
“Deeper, hard-to-tackle challenges ranging from environmental and social safeguards, climate-smart connectivity, and anticorruption to debt sustainability, procurement, and public-private partnerships are at the heart of collaboration between International Financial Institutions such as CAF and other MCDF development partners,” CEO Wang explained.
Working with CAF and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), another MCDF Implementing Partner, CEO Wang noted that MCDF has in total provided USD26 million in grants supporting the preparation of 15 connectivity projects in LAC and USD2.5 in grants for capacity building in the region since 2023. Collectively, these grants cover the sustainable transport, energy, telecommunications, and transboundary water management sectors.
He added that MCDF has organized 41 information and knowledge-sharing events for over 7,500 participants from some 113 beneficiary countries in LAC and globally. Among them include the Digital Infrastructure Introductory Workshop Series that opened in January 2026 and Connectivity Investment Conference on Green and Efficient Ports in December 2025, cohosted with CAF and other IFI partners active in LAC, such as AIIB, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, and World Bank.
During the forum, CEO Wang held bilateral discussions with Peru’s Finance and Economy Minister, Ms. Denisse Miralles; Bolivia Minister of Planning and Environment, Mr. Fernando Romero Pinto; Deputy Secretary at Chile’s Finance Ministry, Ms. Heidi Berner Herrera; and Mr. Diego Canepa, Uruguay’s CAF Board of Directors representative.
These senior officials shared the development priorities of their respective countries and recognized MCDF’s contribution to high-quality connectivity infrastructure investment in LAC through its partnership with CAF. They welcomed CEO Wang to visit their countries for deeper dialogue.
CEO Wang thanked the officials and underscored MCDF’s commitment to building more robust and impactful connectivity partnerships with their countries. To this end, he invited them to share their ideas and perspectives during strategic discussions taking place in 2026 on MCDF’s next phase and attend MCDF’s first replenishment meeting on 30 March in Beijing.
The MCDF delegation further met with executives of the Latin American Association of Development Financing Institutions (ALIDE), National Development Bank of Colombia (FDN), National Development Bank of Peru (COFIDE), and Municipality of Bogota and Governor’s Office of Cordoba (Colombia) to exchange views on connectivity cooperation.
Mr. Juan Miranda, Senior Advisor to the MCDF CEO, additionally participated in the forum panel on the future of LAC engagement with Asia. He described imperatives for developing connectivity infrastructure projects into bankable ones and how MCDF is helping the region’s countries and partners, including developing country financiers (New Partners), move toward this shared goal.
Contact
David Hendrickson
Senior Communications Officer
Mobile: +86 185 0114 6758
david.hendrickson@themcdf.org
