Contribution for upgrading Ecuadorian roads

A US$4.5 million loan, with a six year term, was granted today to the Republic of Ecuador to partially finance a project which consists of studies on feasibility, evaluation and mitigation of environmental impacts and engineering for various highways in the country. The executing body for the project is the Ministry of Public Works and Communications.

The agreement was signed in CAF headquarters in Caracas by the Ecuadorian ambassador in Venezuela, Alfonso Barrera, and CAF Vice President & Deputy CEO Luis Enrique Berrizbeitia. The CAF executive said the loan was part of the priorities defined by the Corporation under its policy of supporting infrastructure programs, which is to upgrade communication routes in order to have a positive effect on internal and external integration process, and favor the development of productive and trade activities.

CAF considers that evaluation of environmental and social impacts is necessary in order to take steps to mitigate them and to guarantee the sustainability of projects in the long term, he added.

Part of the funds granted will be used to complete a peripheral road system with the objective easing traffic in the city of Guayaquil and facilitating transport of products for export and domestic consumption from the Ecuadorian coast and sierra.

The peripheral system is part of a planned very long road circuit, linked to the future development of port of Guayaquil and its trading activities with the rest of the world.

The other part of the loan will finance studies on upgrading and rectification of sections of the El Descanso-Gualaceo-Limón and Limón-La Unión highways, which are entry routes to the eastern region and Macas, capital of Morona Santiago province, from Cuenca which is the third city of political and economic importance in the country.

CAF is an international financial institution which supports the sustainable development of its shareholder countries and regional integration. Its shareholders are Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, together with Brazil, Chile, Jamaica, Mexico, Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago.