The Costa Rican Gisela Sánchez was elected this Friday as president of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE), the first woman to hold that position, announced the president of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves, in a videoconference organized by the institution, based in Tegucigalpa.
The ruler emphasized that Sánchez has a “broad trajectory” that “will undoubtedly strengthen an institution that is very important for Central America, the Dominican Republic and countries beyond.”
Sánchez, a 49-year-old industrial engineer with a master’s degree in Business Administration, is the first woman to hold the position in the 63 years of the institution, created within the framework of Central American integration.
Sánchez, who participated in the videoconference from Honduras, stressed that the BCIE has financed “almost 50% of the resources that have come to Central America.”
The BCIE is “a bank with great strengths, but also with opportunities, threats and challenges,” which she hopes to face with “a lot of ethics, transparency, accountability and working very hard.”
“My most important commitment to all Central Americans and especially to the most vulnerable people who definitely need the Bank […] to be able to bring financial solutions to improve the conditions in which we are,” she promised in her speech.
According to a BCIE statement, Sánchez will be in charge of “the implementation of a deep process of reforms that seeks to resume the Bank’s path in terms of leadership, efficiency and effectiveness in the development of the region.”
Sánchez, who replaces the Honduran Dante Mossi, will serve for the next five years starting on December 1st. The other candidates on the shortlist were Costa Rican José Alfaro and Guatemalan Jaime Roberto Díaz.
The BCIE was founded by Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, has as partners Panama, Belize and the Dominican Republic and as non-regional allies Mexico, Taiwan, Colombia, Spain, Cuba and South Korea.
