US$42-million loan agreement signed with city of Cuenca, Ecuador

The President & CEO of the Andean Development Corporation (CAF), Enrique Garcia, and the mayor of the city of Cuenca, Marcelo Cabrera, signed a loan agreement for US$42 million to finance a major road and urban development program in the city of Cuenca.

The credit will finance a program to define the main traffic arteries in the city, and provide transport corridors and road infrastructure, as a complement to urban planning. The program will also improve environmental and urban quality, along with the quality of the urban and rural road system, which is fundamental for promoting the ordered and harmonious development of the city of Cuenca.

The road program has four components: new north beltway, roads for rural parishes, main road hubs, and the "Barrio to Live Better" project, which is a coordinated effort to improve, with citizen participation, conditions of access to community, cultural, educational, health and social sectors. Small investments will be made along 167 kilometers of urban routes in 13 of the city’s parishes. This effort will bring considerable improvements to the social programs that are currently operating in the city.

Citizen participation in the "Barrio to Live Better" project strengthens the population’s capacity to find solutions to the development problems in each barrio, applying the criteria of justice and social equity.

The total cost of the Cuenca road and urban development program is US$62 million, of which CAF will contribute US$42 million.