CAF approves a record figure of US$ 860 million for Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela

The Andean Development Corporation (CAF) today approved loans to its shareholder countries for a record sum of US$ 860 million at a Board meeting held in Caracas. These funds will be allocated to finance priority development projects, announced the Executive President of this multilateral financial institution, Enrique García, today.

García emphasized that these loans are in line with the objectives that the CAF has established in the interest of furthering a renewed development agenda aimed at achieving high, sustained growth in the region that will lead to the reduction of poverty and the strengthening of democratic governance.

In this context, the Executive President of the CAF affirmed that this multilateral institution channels a large proportion of its activities to improving the region’s competitive framework and to consolidating the integration process through the formation of physical and productive capital within a scenario of institutional enhancement, with high productivity and the responsible use of natural capital, while furthering the training of human capital and social capital within the parameters of inclusion and governance.

In giving details of the operations, García said that a US$ 120 million loan was approved for Bolivia to be used on a program that the Bolivian government is implementing with a view to revitalizing the economy, successfully coming to grips with poverty, and achieving fiscal sustainability in the medium term.

In the case of Costa Rica, a loan for up to US$ 40 million was approved for modernizing the productive apparatus through credits that the Corporation will be granting Costa Rica’s public and private financial institutions. Financing through technical cooperation arrangements amounting to US$ 200,000 was also approved for activities aimed at developing the export potential of the country’s expanding priority sectors.

Ecuador, on the other hand, was the recipient of a US$ 120 million loan for supporting actions aimed at improving fiscal sustainability and transparency in sectors that are of strategic importance for the country’s competitiveness, while Peru benefited with a US$ 280 million loan, which will go to partially finance a program aimed at improving the generation of jobs by developing infrastructure and transforming central, regional and local decision-making processes.

Finally, García announced that a US$ 300 million loan was approved for Venezuela to partially finance physical infrastructure works in the area of energy, such as the construction of Tocoma hydroelectric power station on the Caroní River in the southern part of the country, to cover demand and improve the efficiency and reliability of the National Electricity System.