News

2005

November 10-12

President Figueres participated at the IV General Assembly and Annual Conference of the Club de Madrid, held in Prague. Among the attendees were, Jiri Paroubek, Primer Minister of the Czech Republic, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Former President of Brazil and President of the Club de Madrid, William J. Clinton, Former President of the United States, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, Former President of Iceland, Mary Robinson, Former President of Ireland and Vice President of Club de Madrid, Cassam Uteem, Former President of Mauritius, Amre Moussa, Secretary General of the League of Arab States, and George Soros, Chairman of Open Society Institute. The General Assembly confirmed President Lagos, President of Chile 2000-2006, as the next President of the Club de Madrid, taking over the mandate from President Cardoso in March 2006. The Annual Conference entitled “Democracy in the Post Communist World: Unfinished Business.” that followed the General Assembly extracted lessons learned from the democratization process in Eastern Europe in the post Cold War period for application in similar scenarios elsewhere.

Link: IV General Assembly and Annual Conference of the Club de Madrid

October 6

José María participated in the conference “Voices of the Poor and Coming out of Poverty: Two Perspectives to Analyse Poverty”, organized by FRIDE with the cooperation of the AECI and DARA (Development Assistance Research Associates), that presented the World Bank report Voices of the Poor.

For more information on the paper, consult the World Bank website:
http://www1.worldbank.org/prem/poverty/voices/

September 16

Presidente Figueres participated at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York from 15 to 17 September. During the 2005 Meeting he moderated the session entitled “Promoting Prosperity with Climate Change Policy”. Among the discussion leaders were, Dr. Leonel Fernandez, the President of The Dominican Republic, The Right Honourable Margaret Beckett MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and General Wesley Clark (Ret.).

http://www.clintonglobalinitiative.org

September 4

President Figueres participated in the first preparatory meeting in Amman, Jordan, of the Dead Sea Institute on the invitation of His Majesty King Abdullah of Jordan. Other participants at the meeting included, President Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania, Victor Chu, Chairman of the First Eastern Investment Group in Hong Kong, and Beng Seng, chairman of Hotel Properties in Singapore.

The Dead Sea Institute is intended to become a forum for private sector in the emerging economies and to act as a bridge between research and analysis on one hand and policy-making on the other and will help identify global trends in economics, trade, governance and cross-border cooperation. The institute will be an independent and non-partisan organisation, committed to the highest standards of integrity, research, analysis and policy advice, with an internationally distinguished board of trustees to ensure best practise and transparency.

April 7-9

José María Figueres was invited to address the Annual Summit of the Young President Organization’s Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Chapter. This event took place in Dubai, 7-9 April, bringing together the most influential members of the emerging generation of business leaders. President Figueres addressed the YPO members on the global economic outlook, and the prospects for the Middle East increasing its competitiveness, as a means to attract additional direct foreign investment in areas other than petroleum production.