We, the undersigned Latin American economists
and researchers, write this letter to endorse José Antonio Ocampo’s candidacy
for President of the World Bank.
Mr. Ocampo’s credentials are at this point all
too well known. He has served in his native Colombia as Minister of Finance,
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Minister of Planning and
Chairman of the Central Bank (Banco de la República). He also developed a very successful career in
the United Nations, first as Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for
Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), and later on as Under-Secretary
General for Economic and Social Affairs. He has also taught and carried
research on economic development in several universities in the world including
Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Universidad de los Andes, Cambridge
University, Yale University, Oxford University, and now at Columbia University.
After such a brilliant career, it is not difficult to understand why Mr. Ocampo
has become one of the top practitioner-scholars in the area of economic
development policy.
Many of us have had the opportunity to work
with him and witnessed his intellectual leadership, capacity to coordinate
large groups of professionals and tireless and rigorous work culture. One thing
that fascinates us about him is his deep understanding of so many different
aspects of economic development -including international trade and finance,
public debt, poverty, inequality, macroeconomics, structural change and
industrial innovation- and his ability to blend very abstract concepts and
ideas with concrete and practical knowledge of the real world.
We are convinced that Mr. Ocampo is the best
candidate of the three under consideration by the Board of Executive Directors
of the World Bank because he is the only one that combines extensive and rich experience
on development issues from three key perspectives: as a policy-maker, a
high-level international civil servant and a leading scholar in the field of
development economics. If the selection of the next president of the World Bank
is based on merit, without hesitation José Antonio Ocampo is uniquely qualified
for the post.
