Investment banks to put $10 billion into projects aimed at South America
Four investment banks have announced during a meeting of leaders of trade bloc Mercosur they will put $10 billion for infrastructure works aiming to better connect South America
SAO PAULO — Four investment banks announced Thursday during a meeting of leaders of the Mercosur trade bloc that they will put $10 billion up for infrastructure works aimed at better connecting South America, including funds for port, airport, road, rail and power transmission projects.
The “Routes for South American Integration” initiative was launched in Rio de Janeiro with host Brazil introducing a plan involving more than 120 projects, many of them in Brazil's north bordering Venezuela, Guyana, French Guyana and Suriname.
The funds will come from the Inter-American Development Bank with $3.4 billion, the Development Bank of Latin American and the Caribbean with $3 billion, the Brazilian Development Bank with another $3 billion, and FONPLATA, a bank owned by Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, with $600 million more.
Aloizio Mercadante, the president of Brazil's Development Bank, said his institution will finance works “from the border within Brazil” and the other banks will pay for projects “from the border to the outside.”
“It is the biggest fund ever built for South American integration and for Mercosur in Mercosur's history,” Mercadante said.
Brazil’s Planning and Budget Ministry said in a statement the new infrastructure is aimed at “significantly reducing the time of transportation of merchandise between Brazil and Asia.”
Similar plans for South American integration failed in the last three decades, but Brazil’s Planning Minister Simone Tebet says it will be different this time.
“The regional integration project is finally
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