CABEI joins CIFI's Sustainable Infrastructure Debt Fund with a US$20 million investment to increase support to its member countries

San José, Costa Rica, November 14, 2024.- The Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) has subscribed to become a member of CIFI's Sustainable Infrastructure Debt Fund (SIDF) to channel resources to private sector projects in the Bank's member countries. The SIDF was structured by Corporación Interamericana para el Financiamiento de Infraestructura, S.A. (CIFI), a Panama-based financial institution established in 2001 that advises and finances private sector infrastructure projects. 

The SIDF aims to invest in a diversified portfolio through loans for medium-sized projects located in different countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, with special emphasis on social and environmental infrastructure that are sustainable according to international standards, aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals and Targets (SDGs), the Equator Principles and the Paris Agreement.

Investment in the SIDF has the potential to foster tangible synergies aimed at creating financing opportunities for projects in conjunction with Fund participants that, in turn, generate development in CABEI member countries; in addition to promoting private sector initiatives in projects of public interest; participating in an innovative financing instrument and exchanging knowledge among entities.

It should be noted that the projects that the SIDF seeks to support are measured by 16 environmental, social and governance selection indicators, which include environmental sustainability and resilience, as well as social, institutional, economic and financial sustainability. The projects that are likely to be financed through the Fund are mainly oriented towards the generation of energy from renewable sources, where a high development impact is expected in terms of installed capacity, production and access to green energy, as well as emissions avoided and employment generation.

The Fund involves high-level partners and creditors, such as the German Investment and Development Company (DEG, as part of the KfW banking group); Proparco as the private sector-oriented subsidiary of the French Development Agency (AFD); the Austrian Development Bank (OEeB); the Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation (Finnfund); the Norwegian Investment Fund (Norfund); among others.