US$60 million loan approved for Paraguay

A US$60 million loan was approved for the Republic of Paraguay to partially finance execution of the project, Paraguay-Bolivia Integration Corridor, Trans-Chaco Highway.

The executing agency is the Ministry of Public Works and Communication (MOPC), which will use the funds to upgrade and pave the Trans-Chaco Highway, specifically a 251-km section from Mariscal Espigarribia to the Bolivian border.

CAF President & CEO Enrique García said the integrationist concept of the project was important because it would facilitate trade between Bolivia and Paraguay and with the rest of the nations which form the Andean Community and Mercosur.

"This highway – he said – will become the communicating channel between the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean because – in addition to connecting Asuncion with Santa Cruz de la Sierra – the most dynamic agroindustrial center of Bolivia – it is a step toward construction of a bio-oceanic transport corridor from Brazil, across Paraguay, passing through the north of Chile and south of Peru."

He added that the physical connection of the road systems of the two countries will have a significant impact on expanding the regional economic space, by stimulating development of the bio-oceanic multimodal corridor, Montevideo/ Buenos Aires/ Asuncion (by river) and Santa Cruz de la Sierra/ Pacific Ocean (by land), which will become an integration bridge between the Andean Community and Mercosur.

Paraguay currently exports to Bolivia pedigree livestock, oilseeds, oils, tobacco, dairy and veterinarian products, leather, textiles, timber, equipment, machinery and motors; and imports fuel, lubricants, gasoil and paper from that country.

The project includes finance for facilitating works to provide services for users of the border crossing, construction of embankments and bases, drainage, a 2.2-km section of urban avenue in the locality of Mariscal Espigarribia, road signs and execution of an environmental and social sustainability plan which will benefit Gran Chaco, including drilling wells to supply water to Guarani indigenous communities in the project’s area of influence.

CAF is an international financial organization whose mission is to support the sustainable development of its shareholder countries and regional integration. It is formed by the five nations of the Andean Community: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, together with Brazil, Chile, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago.

The institution is an important catalyst of private national and international funds, which uses its established position on international capital markets to channel competitive funds into its shareholder countries, especially from the industrialized world.