CAF grants loan for USD 14 million to Central American Telecommunications Network

In order to contribute to improve telecommunication services in the countries of the Central American region, CAF, Development Bank of Latin America, subscribed a loan agreement for USD 14 million with the Red Centroamericana de Telecomunicaciones (REDCA) (Central American Telecommunications Network, to partially finance its investment plan aimed at increasing the network's transportation capacity with respect to telecommunications from Guatemala to Panama. 

REDCA's Investment Plan is framed within the Proyecto de Integración y Desarrollo de Mesoamérica (PM) (Mesoamerican Integration and Development Project), which has been supported by CAF since 2002 as part of the Inter-Institutional Technical group (GTI, for its acronym in Spanish), where it contributed to finance the Electrical Interconnection System for Central America (SIEPAC, for its acronym in Spanish) through a credit for USD 16.7 million to Empresa Propietaria de la Red (EPR) (Company Owning the Network), and a non-reimbursable technical cooperation to REDCAS for the development of their business plan.

Susana Pinilla, CAF's Director Representative in Panama, stated, "The strengthening of telecommunications in Latin America is one of our strategic action aims. By supporting these initiatives, CAF seeks to improve the infrastructure of information and communications technologies (ICT) to promote the digital and productive transformation of the region". 

The REDCA project will increase the current network's transportation capacity between the Central American countries, it will improve integration through specialized services, and it will promote the use of the network in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama, with future connections with Mexico and Colombia that are already planned. At the same time, entrepreneurial services are being considered which include connectivity to data centers, clouds to store information, and the implementation of security tools.  

The signature of the financing agreement was held at CAF's offices in Panama City, and included the presence of Susana Pinilla, CAF's Durector Representative in Panama, Claudio Bermudez, RREDCA's General Manager, Ramiro Pozo, REDCA's legal advisor, and Ivan Barria, President of REDCA's Board and General Manager of ETESA-Panama.