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Infrastructure fund commits $750 milion to Northern Triangle

Monday, June 19, 2017


With a $750 million fund, the Inter-American Development Bank will contribute up to a third of approved infrastructure projects in Central America’s Northern Triangle – El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

A private company could qualify for a contribution from the bank, by winning a bid for an infrastructure project from the government of any of the three countries.

The governments of the countries are other potential investors in the plan, whose total value could reach $2.5 billion.

Qualifying projects could involve energy, water, transport and telecom, among other options.

The objective of the plan is to let investors earn a reasonable profit, on projects which provide work, and which improve productivity.

Demand for jobs is high in all three countries, which in recent years have seen the emigration of 4 million people  - one-sixth of the total population – mostly to the United States.

A key objective over the next five years will be to tap the private sector to participate in infrastructure that improves competitiveness, and helps people have prosperous lives in their homelands, IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno said last week.

The bank, which is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and which in 2016 had assets of $113 billion throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, is funded by the contributions of 48 countries, which together have made deposits of $6 billion, plus commitments valued at an additional $164 billion.

The biggest participant is the United States, with deposits of nearly $2 billion and a commitment for an additional $51 billion.

Argentina and Brazl are next, each with $19 billion in commitments, followed by Mexico at $12 billion.

Canada and Japan are other major contributors, along with several European countries.

Only Latin American and Caribbean countries have the right to borrow money from the IDB.