The career of Alfonso García Mora (Murcia, 48 years old) has been marked by crises.
He had been working as managing partner at International Financial Analysts (AFI) for several years when he decided that he had to broaden his horizons and go work abroad.
He applied for a vacancy at the World Bank, but his boss, the recently deceased and longed-for Emilio Ontiveros, took the idea away from him.
“A tremendous crisis is coming in the financial sector, your area, you are going to learn a lot.
This is not the time to leave, ”he remembers him telling her.
"And he was right," he concludes.
It was 2008. He spent the worst of that crisis between bank balances and endless meetings and once the financial rescue was completed, in 2012, the agency knocked on his door again.
His experience with the Spanish financial crisis led him to deal with the problems of the sector in Latin America and from crisis to crisis, and after making the leap to the financial arm of the World Bank, he arrived last July to his current position as Vice President of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) for Europe and Latin America.
From there he directs the regional response to the war in Ukraine and the recovery after the coronavirus pandemic.
"Another crisis, it's my fate," he says with a half smile.
From there he directs the regional response to the war in Ukraine and the recovery after the coronavirus pandemic.
"Another crisis, it's my fate," she says with a half smile.
From there he directs the regional response to the war in Ukraine and the recovery after the coronavirus pandemic.
"Another crisis, it's my fate," she says with a half smile.
García Mora maintains that international aid to Ukraine, which until now is being channeled through multilateral organizations such as the World Bank Group or the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and is focused on providing financial aid to the Government of kyiv, should start putting the focus on the private sector.
“He is not receiving any kind of international support.
We are lending them commercial financing lines and working capital support.
But the problem is that 30% of the companies have already gone bankrupt, which is not a small thing in 10 months of war, although we are really talking about estimates.
And 70% of the country's employment depends on the private sector.
If we don't start protecting him, the country can get into a very complicated vicious circle”, she warns.
Within the private sector, attention must be,
according to the economist in “the agricultural sector, not only because of the impact it has within Ukraine but because of the externalities it has towards the rest.
Russia and Ukraine produce 20% of the world's grain and there are many countries that depend on that grain."
In parallel, he insists on the need to advance in the energy transition in the region.
"Not only because of energy dependence on Russia, Eastern Europe is the most inefficient region in the world in terms of energy consumption and progress must be made to change consumption models and energy sources."
His speech bubbles when he starts talking about measures to adapt economies to the inevitable consequences of climate change, about blue bonds to finance projects related to water, green hydrogen plants, renewable energies,
Alfonso García Mora, Vice President for Europe and Latin America of the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank, in the editorial office of EL PAÍS.MOEH ATITAR
That is what, as Vice President of the IFC, he has come to offer in his recent trip to Madrid to the large Spanish companies that invest again in Latin America.
“I have perceived a lot of interest in Spain.
There were a few years when, as a result of the financial crisis, it was necessary to deleverage balance sheets, return to the essence of the business, and this caused a certain retreat in companies, which are now once again looking with interest at the region, especially with the flags of sustainability, inclusion, climate…”.
The areas where the financial arm of the World Bank Group focuses.
Latin America is immersed in profound political changes that are not, however, affecting its financial fundamentals.
“The Latin American economy has matured in terms of regulatory and political risk.
I remember how the 2002 elections were in Brazil, with enormous market volatility and attacks on the real.
In contrast, now, despite the polarization and a very tight result, the markets and the economy are stable.
That is the maturity of the system that must be taken advantage of, ”he highlights.
On the other hand, the region will be, together with Europe, the ones that will grow the least in 2023. “The big problem in Latin America is that it barely invests 2% of GDP in infrastructure and that is nothing for an economy that needs huge investments from all over the world. Type.
The investment is correlated with the certainty you have of medium and long-term stability, which is what Asia has done very well”, as you well know after spending two years as IFC vice president for that region.
Without growth, there is no inclusion, the great obsession of García Mora in the region with the greatest inequality in the world.
“If the region does not grow above 2%, it does not generate inclusion.
He has a serious productivity problem that has been dragging on for years”, he underlines.
“For us, inclusion goes through access to broadband, which gives access to health services, education, financial inclusion and allows greater business entrepreneurship, which in turn will increase the productivity of these economies.
Our mission there is to finance the infrastructure to make it possible.
Currently,
only 13% of the population in the region has access to broadband.
If it went to 50%, it would change the ecosystem completely.”
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