EIB Vice-President underlines EU bank’s important contribution to supporting infrastructure investment
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is taking part in the General Assembly of ALIDE, the international organisation representing the development banks of Latin America and the Caribbean, whose purpose is to foster economic and social development in the region by financing sustainable projects.
The European Union is Latin America’s main economic development partner and the EIB, as the EU bank, promotes cooperation between the two regions by financing projects that support economic development, social and environmental infrastructure, private sector development and the fight against climate change. This is why the EIB Vice-President with responsibility for operations in Latin America, Román Escolano, is taking part in ALIDE’s 47th General Assembly, which this year is focusing on analysing technical disruption and the economic transformation of Latin America and the Caribbean, bringing together, from 31 May to 2 June, the heads of regional and international financial institutions in Santiago de Chile.
In the plenary session, which focused on examining the role of development banking in fostering smart infrastructure, the EIB Vice-President underlined the importance of development banks’ support for innovative infrastructure as a means of boosting productivity and economic competitiveness.
“The EIB plays a key role in promoting sustainable investment throughout the world”, said Román Escolano. “Our priority is to finance strategic infrastructure that fosters urban development, transport and telecommunications and improves people’s lives. The infrastructure of the future combines the digital world with sectors like transport, energy and communications, and our vision is that development banking has to be able to adapt to this genuine revolution”.
Meetings with development banks and cooperation agreement with FONPLATA
As well as taking part in ALIDE’s General Assembly, the EIB Vice-President took advantage of his visit to Chile to meet with that international organisation’s Secretary General, Edgardo Álvarez, as well as with representatives of the UN’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL). The EIB delegation to ALIDE’s General Assembly headed by Román Escolano also had meetings with representatives of the World Bank and the Interamerican Development Bank in Chile and with the heads of the region’s financial institutions such as Banco de Desarrollo de Brasil (BNDES), Financiera del Desarrollo Territorial de Colombia (FINDETER), Corporación Nacional para el Desarrollo de Uruguay (CND) and Banco de la República Oriental de Uruguay (BROU), Banco Nacional de Obras y Servicios Públicos de México (BANOBRAS), Nacional Financiera Banca de Desarrollo de México (NAFIN) and Banco Nacional de Comercio Exterior de México (BANCOMEXT), Banco de Desarrollo del Perú (COFIDE), Banco Agropecuario de Perú and Fondo de inversiones responsAbility Perú, BancoEstado de Chile and the Chilean economic agency for development (CORFO). Román Escolano will also hold talks with the Vice-President of the Latin American Development Bank (CAF) and members of the EU Delegation in Chile.
The aim of all these meetings is to forge closer ties with the different financial institutions and development banks operating in Latin America and the Caribbean. Against this background, the EIB has concluded a Memorandum of Understanding with Fondo Financiero para el Desarrollo de la Cuenca del Plata, FONPLATA, signed by Juan E. Notaro Fraga, FONPLATA’s Executive President in Santiago de Chile, and Román Escolano, Vice-President of the EIB.
Under this MoU, cooperation between the two institutions will include potential cofinancing of projects of mutual interest, and especially possible support for projects helping to improve infrastructure or combat climate change.
“With this agreement FONPLATA is partnering with a strong and prestigious institution, the EIB, with which we share common interests such as the promotion of sustainable development and the need for knowledge exchange at the highest level. This is an alliance that will bring great benefits to the citizens of our member states, especially those most vulnerable to climate change” said Juan Notaro.
The EIB in Latin America
The EIB provides economic support for projects in Latin America by supplying both long-term finance on favourable terms and the technical assistance needed to ensure that such projects deliver social, economic and environmental benefits.
Since the EIB began operations in Latin America in 1993, it has provided financing for over a hundred projects in 14 different countries in the region, with total investment of more than EUR 7 billion. In 2016, the EU bank made available EUR 519 million for implementing various projects in Brazil, Ecuador and Panama. In 2017, the EIB has already signed a EUR 124 million agreement to finance the construction of a Bus Rapid Transit system in Managua, Nicaragua, and another EUR 77 million loan for widening the highway between Confital and Bombeo in Bolivia to two lanes.
