Infrastructure is crucial for the development of Latin American Countries
- CAF and MTC present Report on Economy and Development "Paths for the future: infrastructure management in Latin America"
- Experts analyze infrastructure management in the region.
CAF director representative in Peru, Eleonora Silva Pardo, and the Vice Minister of Transport, José Gonzáles Quijano, opened the ceremony to present RED 2009, which this year is devoted to a detailed study of the impact of infrastructure on household well-being, productivity and international trade, and the environment.
Silva Pardo said that improvement of the quality and quantity of infrastructure of a society was not only fundamental for the prosperity and welfare of peoples, but also a significant public policy challenge.
"The state of the infrastructure of a society is crucial for its development; moreover, infrastructure must be seen as an engine of development, an impact management which represents well-being and reaches households and people," Silva said, while recalling that CAF has become the main source of infrastructure financing in Latin America.
For his part, the Transport vice minister said the Peruvian government was committed to development, and welcomed CAF as a relevant actor in integration projects in Peru, such as the Inter-Oceanic Highway.
Reflections
The Report on Economy and Development (RED) 2009 "Paths for the future: Infrastructure management in Latin America," was presented by Pablo Sanguinetti, CAF research director.
Sanguinetti said that the fifth edition of RED offered reflections on the quality and quantity of infrastructure in Latin America.
The CAF study - he said - was a reflection on the quality and quantity of infrastructure in Latin America. He argued that decision-making on allocation of public resources should be based increasingly on knowledge, which leads to a growing need for rigorous evaluation of intervention initiatives.
The publication underscores the importance of strengthening the institutional capacities of the public sector for effective provision of infrastructure services, which requires regulatory improvements, and the existence of bodies for planning medium- and long-term investment and specialized bodies for contracting with the private sector, which is a very important partner in provision of infrastructure services in the region.
"Improving the current state of infrastructure is a priority objective in Latin America. After a prolonged period of economic expansion originally stimulated by the export sectors and later attributable to the dynamism of domestic demand, the region shows signs of exhaustion in parts of its infrastructure, which is beginning to create bottlenecks in the growth processes of economies and trade in the region and with the rest of the world," the CAF research head warned.
Lastly, he said that RED 2009 offers two fundamental messages. First, it is vitally important that the impacts of the various interventions in infrastructure in the region be measured systematically and in line with high technical standards. This is the best way to inform decision-makers about priorities of allocation of public resources to different activities and projects.
Second, the challenge of improving the quality and quantity of infrastructure in the region requires an adequate combination of incentives for private participation, regulatory frameworks, and territorial and sectoral planning and coordination bodies. Under this type of management scheme, each infrastructure project can opt for the system of provision and maintenance best adapted to its specific needs and with the best prospect of offering quality services sustainable over time.
Other participants in the presentation of RED were Stefania Scandizzo, CAF researcher; Cayetana Aljovín, executive director of Proinversión; and Gonzalo Prialé, president of the Association for National Infrastructure Development (AFIN).