Operations for nearly US$400 million approved

(Caracas, July 22, 1994).-- Eighteen operations, for a total US$386.5 million, were approved for various economic sectors in the five CAF member countries, at the conclusion of meetings of the Executive Committee and Board held in Caracas, Venezuela, on July 21 and 22.

CAF President & CEO Enrique García said these operations “will increase the productive capacity of various companies, especially in the private sector; renew the industrial base; enhance the viability of privatization processes; strengthen public sector institutions; cooperate with improving the living conditions of the most deprived sectors and with environmental preservation, while contributing by means of physical infrastructure works to strengthening the regional integration process."

The meetings were attended -- on behalf of the series “A" and "B" shares -- by the foreign ministers of Colombia, Juan Manual Santos; of Ecuador, José Vicente Maldonado; of Peru, Liliana Canale; and of Venezuela, Alberto Poletto; along with Bolivian National Secretary of Industry and Commerce Carlos Morales; Colombian Minister of Economic Development Mauricio Cárdenas, and various vice ministers, directors and presidents of financial development institutions, public and private.

CAF is a solid Latin American financial institution formed by Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. Other shareholders are Mexico, Chile, Trinidad and Tobago and 22 private banks from the Andean subregion.

The Corporation has become the most successful Latin American issuer on international capital markets. In the last 15 months it has placed four public bond issues for US$425 million, two on the Euromarket, one in Japan and the latest on the Dragon market of Southeast Asia.

These placements, combined with a US$200 million loan granted by IDB, exceed the funds generated by the capital contributions paid by member countries in the institution’s 24 years of existence.

These operations demonstrate that CAF is diversifying its sources of finance by attracting capital from the developed countries and generating funds at competitive rates on international capital markets as a means of covering the economic and social development requirements of Andean countries.