Bond issue to be placed on Colombian financial market

The conditions of the issue will be determined by a call for bids which CAF will open soon with financial intermediaries with great experience in this area, so that they can compete with the options offered by the instruments of the financial system and meet new and more rigorous expectations.

Formed by Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, and with Mexico and Chile among its shareholders, CAF has maintained optimal productivity in the management of its financial resources, which has resulted in self-sustaining growth.

One of the areas of priority interest for CAF President Enrique García is that the institution needs to maintain an active and stable presence on regional and international capital and financial markets, which will result in generation of funds on the best possible conditions.

On various occasions, García has expressed his interest in developing capital markets as a way of stimulating domestic savings, strengthening stock exchanges and markets, and creating marketable instruments appropriate for improving distribution of wealth.

This is the first time that CAF has accessed subregional capital markets, which is clear evidence of the emergence of a new concept in Latin America, based on cooperation and the criterion of exploiting natural financial and economic complementarities for the mutual benefit of the countries.

In 1992 the financial markets of Colombia and Venezuela made great progress in the same direction. Banks from both countries expanded their fields of action by financing dynamic and growing trade, supplementing the work that CAF and other multilateral organizations have been doing for over 20 years.

Based on these developments, the Venezuelan government placed public debt instruments in Colombia to be acquired by investors in that country.

Given this positive environment at the level of integration of the financial systems of two countries of the Andean Group -- and the prospects for other member countries -- CAF decided to make its first incursion into the Andean capital market.

As a result, CAF vice president of finance, Juan Fernando Posada, made an official visit to Colombia to start negotiations on placement of the bonds, which has received the backing of the economic authorities involved.

With the funds generated by this procedure, the Corporation will increase financing of priority projects in both private and public sectors for the development of its member countries and actively cooperate with trade finance.

Internationally, CAF made its first bond placement on the Japanese financial market and is now negotiating with European and US markets.