CAF Fosters Integration Logistics Corridors in Argentina with USD 100 Million

The Board of Directors of CAF—development bank of Latin America—approved a loan for USD 100 million to Argentina, with the purpose of promoting the consolidation of road corridors and thus reducing travel time, vehicle operating costs and improving road safety.

The Logistics Corridors Integration Program consists of expanding highway infrastructure capacity. In particular, the plan calls for the extension of the RN 5 - Mercedes - Variante Suipacha section (20 km) and the extension of the RN3 - San Miguel del Monte - Acceso Gorchs section (27.22 km).

The program’s projects were identified in the South American Regional Integration Initiative (IIRSA) and are part of the MERCOSUR-Chile Integration and Development Hub (EID). This includes interventions in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, covering 18% of the South American land area, which is also the most populated (35% of the total) and with the highest GDP (48%).

“We are committed to the sustainable development of Argentina and to boosting its competitiveness, this time with the improvement of two vital trade, logistics and connectivity routes for the benefit of all. Logistics corridors are a priority at CAF in our efforts to promote regional integration,” said CAF executive president Sergio Díaz-Granados.

These interventions will have an estimated 127,234 direct beneficiaries residing in the areas of influence of the road projects, in addition to an estimated average 18,908 daily users by 2026. The indirect beneficiaries are estimated at 1,349,397 in the area of influence of both corridors within the PBA.

CAF has implemented a strategy to support integration logistics corridors and pursues an active intervention agenda in this area. This includes information systematization on the corridor, creating roadmaps and prioritizing high-impact interventions in transport infrastructure, energy, logistics, telecommunications, territorial and socio-environmental development, aimed at improving the provision of services and supporting value chain development. This strategy has been successfully applied in northern Argentina (2018), Ecuador (2019) and Mexico (2021), resulting in the identification of regional integration investment projects valued at more than USD 6.8 billion.