Buenos Aires, March 27 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) Experts from Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Argentina will release on Wednesday a draft document to set up the Bank of the South in 2007.
The group will submit the document to their respective economy ministers who are to meet on March 30 in Caracas to outline, among other things, the structure, management and future operations of the proposed development bank.
The Bank of South is aimed at freeing Latin America from financial dependence on world bodies such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Inter-American development Bank, and as Argentina Economy Minister Felisa Miseli described it, to provide “a choice for the poor countries�.
Venezuelan Finance Minister Rodrigo Cabeza said the Bank of the South is to be set up in the first half of 2007 and may extend throughout South America.
It will start operations with 10 per cent of the overseas reserves of Argentina and Venezuela, equivalent to about seven billion USD, plus part of the other members’ hard currency reserves stored in the United States and Europe.