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OAS Assistant Secretary General Opens Business Development Fair

The Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Albert Ramdin, today participated in the inaugural ceremony of the Business Development Fair that is taking place from April 11 - 14 in Bogota, Colombia. The event is jointly organized by the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB Youth), the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), and the Organization of American States – Young America’s Business Trust (OAS-YABT), among others.

In his speech, Ambassador Ramdin recognized the fundamental role of youth in the development of countries in the region, and asserted that “the present and future of our nations are directly related to young people, who will eventually assume the greatest responsibilities in the future soon to come.” He also explained that as a result of the 38th General Assembly an inter-departmental group on youth development was created, in the heart of the OAS, to promote the topic of youth as a horizontal axis in the structure of the Organization, an initiative that complements the job done by the Young Americas Business Trust (YABT). “Through this entity, the OAS has demonstrated its sustained commitment of more than ten years to the development of entrepreneurship among young people,” he said.

In April 2009, in the framework of the Fifth Summit of the Americas, young people of the hemisphere gathered in the Youth Forum of the Americas to present their recommendations and suggestions to the Ministers of External Relations present at the Summit. In that regard, Ambassador Ramdin commented that “at that meeting, the young participants requested support for implementing effective solutions that would allow us to fight poverty, have greater access to resources and international markets, and join forces to bring social and economic development to their communities. I am extremely satisfied to see that today, exactly one year later, we are responding, together with international organizations and allies to the necessities of our youth.”

Recognizing the work of the event’s organizers, Ramdin stated that “the successful development of this work requires the use of financial resources as well as technological knowledge, followed by a good implementation and monitoring of the results.”

The vice-president of the Republic of Colombia, Francisco Santos, and the World Bank’s Director of Operations for Latin America and the Caribbean, Elizabeth Adu, were also present at the inaugural ceremony of the 2010 Business Development Fair, which recognizes the initiatives and ideas that have the potential to promote employment among young people and offer related benefits to their respective communities.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-117/10