USD 200 million for educational infrastructure and sanitation social programs in Panama

(Lima, December 3, 2013). CAF, Development Bank of Latin America, approved a loan for USD 100 million to the Republic of Panama for the  Program to Expand and Modernize the Educational Infrastructure (PAMIE, for its acronym in Spanish). 

The executing agency will be the Ministry of Education through the National Direction of Engineering and Architecture. 

Enrique Garcia, Executive President of the financial institution, stated that "CAF makes a special emphasis on investment in education as an essential base for the inclusive and productive development that Latin America needs". 

CAF´s Executive President noted that the school infrastructure will extend the opportunities for quality education to 7,800 students "in addition to the families of these children, who will indirectly benefit in view of the reduction in transportation costs resulting from the improvement of access to schools". 

The PAMIE seeks to increase access, equity, and quality of pre-school, elementary, and secondary education by financing the construction and equipment of educational complexes managed by the public sector in areas with low school a coverage and recent urbanization. 

The project includes the construction of educational complexes, as well as the rehabilitation of schools and their equipment, to be carried out in the provinces of Colon, Chiriqui, East Panama, West Panama and Veraguas. 

Actions are focused on three areas: the construction of innovating infrastructure in areas with low coverage and high school drop-out rates; the provision of equipment, including educational technology to modernize the teaching-learning process; and the creation of school spaces that help keep students in the schools. 

USD 103 million for the Sanitation of the City and Bay of Panama 

At the same time, Enrique Garcia and Frank De Lima, Minister of Economy and Finance, subscribed a loan contract for USD 103 million for the complementary works of the Sanitation project for the City and Bay of Panama, promoted by the national Government through the Ministry of Health, which responds to the city's accelerated urban development in the past decades. 

CAF's Executive President highlighted the project's positive impact "as it seeks to recover the sanitary and environmental conditions of the metropolitan area, and the elimination of contamination resulting from non-treated residual waters in urban rivers and in the coastal areas of the Bay of Panama, which translates into improvements in health conditions, the environment, and the quality of life of the population." 

García highlighted the high social content of the project and added that "it has become an international reference for comprehensive plans to treat residual waters in Latin America." 

Specifically, the loan's funds will be allocated to finance the direct construction costs of the construction of civil works, supply of materials and equipment for the complementary works for waste water networks and interconnections of the Sanitation project of the City and Bay of Panama, as well as for studies, external supervision, execution of the environmental management plan, and operational expenditures of the Project's Coordinating Unit.