On January 17, 2011 (Monday), Hiroshi Toyoda, the Special Advisor for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Office in Asia (ASI) gave a lecture at the Graduate School of Management Large Lecture Room as part of the Seminar Series for Supporting Overseas Internships. The topic of Mr. Toyoda’s lecture was “Project Finance in Central and South America”.

The Inter-American Development Bank, as indicated by its name, is a regional development bank that mainly focuses on the north, central and south American countries. Mr. Toyoda himself mentioned in his lecture that his character fits in well with Latin American culture, and gave an active and vigorous talk which incorporated occasional student comments.

During his lecture, Mr. Toyoda addressed topics such as the recent appreciation of the Yen against the dollar, effective exchange rates, introductions of central and south American countries where the IDB has many finance projects, and detailed explanations of some of those projects.

Examples of some of the projects include a gasoline pipeline project in Peru, road project in Chile, and subway project in Brazil. All of these examples were funded through project finance and using these examples, Mr. Toyoda explained the characteristics of project finance, differences with general corporate finance, and the significance of IDB’s financing. He also talked about the intense competition for the high speed railway project in Brazil. Following the lecture, there was a question and answer session where Mr. Toyoda was able to speak about his personal experiences in a career path at an international organization, the joys and difficulties of working at an international organization, etc.

Lecture Room	Mr. Hiroshi Toyoda	Question and Answer Session