CABEI and GIZ sign agreement to strengthen productive sectors in Costa Rica

The Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) signed an agreement of understanding to jointly support the integration and balanced economic and social development of the Central American region.

The agreement involves improving access to financing for the agricultural sector, specifically to ensure that the Costa Rican coffee sector complies with low emission levels of greenhouse gases. It will also strengthen the Costa Rican and regional financial sector by promoting a transformation towards a green economy; this will include training for financial intermediaries on issues related to climate change and its impact on productive sectors.

This reiterates the commitment of CABEI and GIZ to strengthen synergies, resources and knowledge of a technical, financial, socio-environmental and scientific nature in order to promote specific actions and projects in three axes: access to financing for the agricultural sector; transformation of the financial sector towards a green economy; and generation, management and exchange of knowledge.

In this regard, a project is being carried out in Costa Rica that involves improving access to financing for the agricultural sector, specifically to ensure that Costa Rican coffee sector complies with low emission levels of greenhouse gases, with the aim of replicating the learned lessons in other Central American countries.

The transformation of the Costa Rican and regional financial sector towards a green economy includes training for financial intermediaries on issues related to climate change and its impact on productive sectors, as well as an improvement in the generation and transfer of knowledge among relevant actors, including the transfer of best practices and knowledge in order to facilitate the replication of experiences at a national and regional level.

The 4-year term agreement was signed by Mr. Juergen Popp, GIZ Country Director for Costa Rica and Mr. Alberto Cortés Ramos, CABEI Director for Costa Rica.

Mr. Cortés stated that CABEI’s 2015-2019 Institutional Strategy, "Integrating Sustainable Development and Competitiveness," seeks to establish important alliances with development partners, such as GIZ, in order to improve access to financing for productive sectors. This agreement will seek to improve the Costa Rican coffee sector by promoting more efficient processes that produce lower emissions levels of greenhouse gases.

Likewise, Mr. Juergen Popp, GIZ Country Director, emphasized the cooperation potential between both institutions to support a change in development projects within different sectors, which will be necessary to face the climate change challenges in Central America. The activities in the coffee sector will serve as a test center to learn from them for other topics.