Meeting of President-Comandante Daniel,
and Compañera Rosario, Vice President of Nicaragua,
with Brother Dante Mossi, Executive President of BCIE.
March 16, 2022
Remarks by Daniel
Good afternoon, Nicaraguan brothers and sisters, Nicaraguan families. Today we are happy and honored to welcome the President of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration, BCIE, Central American Brother Dante Mossi. We are accompanied by Ivan, who is our representative to the Bank; Salvador Sacasa, Ramon Perez, Carlos de Castilla, Ramiro Cano, Marcia Alvarado.
Nicaraguans, Nicaraguan brothers and sisters, Nicaraguan families, you all know the significance of this Bank, which is the result of the commitment to Central American Integration, of Dante's work at the head of the Bank, and of the support of the countries beyond the region that contribute to the Bank. What for? For what is a common cause of the Central American Peoples: the fight against Poverty.
And in emergency situations such as the pandemic, the Bank naturally guarantees resources to bring vaccines to our countries, defending the lives of the poor, who do not have access to vaccines in the first place, and in this way we can vaccinate the population, as we are doing. And we continue vaccinating, we continue vaccinating, visiting the families in the neighborhoods and in the countryside, and in the mountains, the health brigades go there to vaccinate.
And too the accompaniment in a large number of Programs, where I highlight the Health Program, the Hospitals.... Look at all the hospitals have been built, thanks to this effort of the Central American Bank! A Bank for Life, a Bank for Peace, so much demanded by our Peoples, so much demanded by Humanity.
So we welcome Dante, where we already had an office of the Bank in our country, an office with open doors, as are the doors of the Bank already open in its Head Office in Honduras, well, now also a Permanent Office in our Country, which is a clear sign of how every day we Central American Peoples get ever closer, integrating ourselves in the fight against Poverty and in the fight for Peace.
So, welcome Dante, welcome Compañero.
Remarks by Dante Mossi
President and Madam Vice President, first of all it is an honor to be back in this beautiful country; from the moment you enter you feel the warm reception as you enter here in Nicaragua. Thank you very much.
But most of all I would like to reiterate my gratitude.... I was telling my governor, Don Ivan, that during my illness two years ago, a memory that I keep very close to my heart was that you allowed one bouquet of flowers in my room and it happened to be one that you sent, a bouquet of yellow roses, during my recovery, which was the only thing one had besides medical equipment.
That gave me a lot of hope in the most difficult moment I had, so thank you very much for that generosity of heart, in that most difficult moment.
On the other hand, I am very happy that with the Governor we have achieved this joint work and today we conclude what we started two years ago, Mr. Governor, which was to lay the first stone of this building that cements BCIE's close relationship with Nicaragua.
And I would like to reiterate that Nicaragua has perhaps the largest and best structured Program in all of Central America; things are well executed. I believe that the Nicaraguan people should be very pleased with the quality of their hospitals.
I would also like to reiterate that in the area of Health we are very interested in continuing to work on Water and Sanitation, because I believe that Water is Life, Sanitation is Dignity, and obviously it reduces Poverty in Nicaragua.
I would like to point out that in the area of electricity, for example, Nicaragua will be the second country in Central America to cover 100% of its population. I believe that this is not a minor achievement, it is a very important achievement for Nicaragua, the region's largest country is managing to reach all the Nicaraguan people with electric energy services.
First class roads, and connections to the Mosquitia... I have talked to leaders of the Mosquitia in Honduras, and they say: We envy what we see on the other side of the Rio Coco. We really see the progress, how Nicaragua is becoming more and more integrated.
On the side of the Central American Bank, we are working on regional initiatives to bring all the governments closer together, and on that Future that we need so much. As you mentioned, Mr. President, Integration is our strongest ally to face this World that brings surprises from all sides.
So, we have initiatives that we have discussed, that were ideas when we talked about two years ago, but now we are about to create the Regional Debt Market, which will allow Nicaragua to finance itself, from the Central American Market.
We have initiatives, Mr. President, to support you in your projects to develop the Caribbean Port in Bluefields, we believe that this is very important and strategic, and we are going to support you in this initiative, and also in completing these ambitious connectivity projects for the whole country, so that integrating the Caribbean Coast is no longer a dream, but a reality, that is, the famous "pegaderos" that are no longer there.
So, BCIE is really proud to have theseresults. I and Salvador Sacasa were in the United Kingdom with a company that told us about the miracle of Lake Managua, how they have managed to clean up a lake near which people did not even want to approach before. And now the owner of the company commented that it is a lake from which in 2 years' time will be able to take water, to use for drinking water for the community, because the communities around Lake Managua have been cleaned up very well and Lake Managua, an asset for humanity, has been rescued.
So, Mr. President, it is a pride to be here and I know that tomorrow we have a good celebration, and with the Central Bank, with the Ministry of Finance, we are going to discuss the Economy after this pandemic hit, and we really want to understand how we can work better with small businesses to help communities get ahead, with the reforestation efforts that your Government has, via the Climate Fund.
And another idea that we talked about is how best to help the people who are in the Dry Corridor, a program already approved and at the end of the month in the Board of Directors, with the strong support of Ramon Uriel we are going to present the program, to support small businesses to do things, help farmers who do Sustainable Agriculture in the driest parts of all Central America, including Nicaragua and we are going to support them with very low interest rates, very generous interest rates.
So, Mr. President, we are here to listen to your priorities and BCIE is attentive to meet those demands to the extent that we can. And as we were discussing today in a meeting, BCIE will always do everything possible to meet the demands of the various countries; we will never let a country go without financing to meet the needs that country identifies.
So, it is an honor to be here in your company in this beautiful Land of Lakes and Volcanoes, and I understand that tomorrow we will even have a Poetry Event by Rubén Darío to celebrate this worthy occasion that will occupy us over the next few days.
Thank you very much for your hospitality. Thank you.