Mayors of Bolivia and Ecuador visit Cuenca

(Quito, August 2, 2007).- A group of Bolivian mayors will tour some of the works being implemented in Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca in Ecuador as part of a project to exchange experiences and best practices between local government, promoted by CAF. Mayors Oscar Montés of Tarija and Gonzalo Terceros of Cochabamba will visit the city from July 30 to August 2.

Marcelo Cabrera, mayor of Cuenca (Ecuador), together with Hernán Tamayo, director of the executing units of the project, and Mauricio Ochoa, technician, will take the visiting mayors and their technical staff on a tour of the Barrio for Better Living Project, whose objective is the integrated improvement of barrios, providing them with sewerage, paving and recreation facilities.

The project promotes exchanges of experiences among local officials based on the fact that knowledge of methodologies and improved practices minimizes the costs of new projects. The mayors will visit projects that give priority to areas of vital importance to municipal government, such as infrastructure, basic sanitation, environment, mass transport and barrio improvement.

CAF President García said it was imperative to develop exchanges of experiences between authorities, and to offer others the opportunity to learn about and work on conceptual and practical bases which lead to creation of viable projects for the benefit of the population. The challenge for the mayors is to repeat the successes in the economic and social situation of each country.

The CAF project will benefit the municipalities of Sucre, La Paz, Cochabamba, Santa Cruz and Tarija in Bolivia, and Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca in Ecuador. Municipal leaders will visit the most successful projects in both countries and create lines of communication to share experiences and results in the future.