Press Release No:2012/185/LAC.BUENOS AIRES, December 4, 2011. A select group of experts and policy makers from the Americas and Europe will gather in Argentina December 7 to discuss the hot-button issue of sovereign debt restructuring – a topic close to Latin America’s experience that has now moved up on the region’s radar screen in light of the current debt predicament in the Euro-zone.
The seminar entitled The Missing link in the International Financial Architecture, provides an international platform to spur an open and plural debate about the challenges of countries facing debt restructuring, and about policy options to take into account for an orderly resolution protecting the interests of all parties involved.
Without a clear international consensus on the best response to a sovereign debt crisis, the experts will look at several options including setting up a new institutional mechanism for resolving these types of issues, voluntary marketplace solutions or a combination of the previous two. Particularly, it is of key interest to explore policy options that will allow countries, after a successful restructuring process, to normalize their financial links to the world.
Jointly organized by Argentina’s Minister of Economy and Public Finance and the World Bank, the conference will also address the role of international institutions in this type of processes and other regional experiences in dealing with the debt issue. It would also look at public policy options going forward.
"I think there is value in setting up a plural platform for debating these issues, so all points of views in this critical topic for the international financial architecture are heard. For us the worth of this conference is in spurring a fruitful debate, without pre-conceptions, that is able to push forward an agenda for global cooperation,” said Penelope J. Brook, World Bank Director for Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
It includes the following sessions:
1.Sovereign Debt Crisis: lessons from history and macroeconomic analysis - Richard Portes, Professor of Economics at London School of Economics; Brian Pinto, Senior Adviser in the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network of The World Bank Group and Daniel Heymann, Professor at the Universidad de Buenos Aires. Discussant -Eduardo Levy Yeyati, Professor at University of Buenos Aires and UTDT,
2.Debt Restructuring Experiences - Costas Lapavitsas, Professor of Economics at the School of Oriental Studies, University of London, Thomas Lambert, Director, Sovereign Advisory Team at Lazard Frere; and Sergio Chodos, Director at Central Bank of Argentina. Discussant Carmen Corrales, Partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP.
3.The missing Link: Gaps in international financial architecture for debt restructuring by Lee Buchheit, Partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP and Axel Leijonhufvud, Professor of UCLA and Universita degli Studi di Trento. Discussant: Mitu Gulati, Professor at Duke University
4.The Theory and Practice of Sovereign Debt Restructuring by Joseph Stiglitz, 2001 Economic Sciences Nobel Prize winner and Professor at Columbia Business School. Presents Mercedes Marcó del Pont, Central Bank President.
5.The Way Forward, Policy Options by Augusto de la Torre, Chief Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean, The World Bank; Lee Buchheit, Partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP; Yuefen Li, Head of Debt and Development Finance Branch, UNCTAD; Axel Kicillof Professor of Economics at Universidad de Buenos Aires; and Juergen Kaiser, Coordinator and research fellow at the German debt Network. Moderator: Hernán Lorenzino, Secretary of Finance, Ministry of Economy and Public Finance
Attention Editors: Coverage Details
Place– Hotel Park Hyatt, Posadas 1557. Media Room– 2 Subsuelo Salón Ginkos I y II
Agenda
Opening– 9.00 a 9.30 –Hernán Lorenzino, Secretario de Finanzas y Penélope Brook, Directora del Banco Mundial
Session 1 – 9.30 a 11.00 hs - Sovereign Debt Crisis: lessons from history and macroeconomic analysis
Session 2 – 11.20 a 13.00 hs - Debt Restructuring Experiences
Session 3 – 14.00 a 15.30 hs - The missing Link: Gaps in international financial architecture
Session 4 – 15.30 a 16.30 hs - The Theory and Practice of Sovereign Debt Restructuring by Joseph Stiglitz
Session 5 – 16.45 a 18.00 hs - The Way Forward, Policy Options
Closing – 18.00 hs–Amado Boudou, Minister of Economy and Public Finance
Media Contact / Acreditaciones
