Finance ministers from Mercosur nations and Ecuador meet
1. Pan of
Itamaraty Palace
2.
Medium of same
3. Wide, finance ministers posing for photo
4. Pan of photo opportunity
5.
Cutaway assembled media
6. Wide of meeting
7. Mid of
Guido Mantega, Brazilian
Finance Minister, speaking during meeting
8. Pan of meeting
9.
Various, finance ministers at meeting
10.
Venezuelan Finance Minister
Rodrigo Cabez
11. Wide of meeting
12. Wide of building in Itamaraty Palace
13. Ministers entering news conference
14. Various of
Mantega at press conference
15. SOUNDBITE (
Portuguese) Guido Mantega, Brazilian Finance Minister:
"We managed to overcome all the obstacles that were preventing this
South American Bank from being founded. At this
point, the idea of creating a South American Bank is close to becoming a reality."
16. Mid of photographer
17. Mid of news conference
18. SOUNDBITE (
Spanish) Rodrigo
Cabezas, Venezuelan Finance Minister:
"This bank was not conceived in order to oppose anyone. It was conceived in order to favour
South America and its people. It was conceived, of course, in an effort to build a new financial architecture that will foster a different relationship between the bank and its capacity to finance the people."
19. Wide of press conference
STORYLINE:
Finance ministers from seven
South American countries set a deadline on Monday for the establishment of a new regional bank, a multinational funding institute with similar functions as the
International Development Bank.
The new '
Banco del Sur' will be set up in
Caracas, Venezuela, on
3 November,
2007, subject to presidential approval from all member countries.
The announcement came from a meeting of the Mercosur (Mercado Comun
Sudamericano -
Common Market of South America) finance ministers in
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Monday.
The bank is a special project of
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has been promoting it as an alternative to the
International Monetary Fund.
"
We can now say that the
Bank of the South is about to become reality," Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega told reporters at the end of the meeting.
He said that many obstacles had been overcome but much remains to be done, including decisions on how much each country will contribute to the bank and details as to the financial structure of the institute.
Venezuela's Rodrigo Cabezas told his opposite numbers "This is not a bank of one country or of one president. The bank is not against anything or anyone. It is in favour of the people of South America."
The bank will lend money for projects that foster regional development at interest rates similar to those charged by other multilateral institutions, Mantega said.
He said the finance ministers of each country will sit on the new bank's administrative council and that each country will have one vote.
The project was agreed by finance ministers from
Brazil, Venezuela,
Bolivia,
Uruguay,
Paraguay,
Argentina and
Ecuador.
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