During the week of February 15, a CIAT delegation visited Washington to meet with senior officials of several administrations and organizations.

 

The group consisted of the Executive Secretary Marcio Verdi, heads of missions of Spain and France Luis Cremades and Angel Gonzalez and Technical Assistance Specialist Socorro Velazquez. Organizations visited were the offices of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, IMF, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, an NGO (New Rules for Global Finance Coalition) actively involved with the United Nations and the U.S. Treasury Department Office of Technical Assistance.

 

The topics discussed with the institutions were adapted to issues of mutual benefit. Mainly, they were informed about the current CIAT agenda of activities with the hopes of strengthening their participation. Issues dealing with technical assistance and training were discussed to identify areas of common interest.

 

There was strong interest expressed by these institutions in being involved in the execution of activities which may be beneficial to CIAT member countries. Recently, CIAT began the cooperation initiative by supplying information requested by some institutions.