CABEI promotes regional trade and competitiveness

Roatán, July 1, 2016.- The Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) has designed a series of programs, policies and strategies targeting the facilitation and promotion of international trade, explained José de Jesús Rojas, during the Regional Facilitation and Competitiveness Forum on “Challenges for Central America in the XXI Century,” which was held in Roatán, Honduras.

The event was attended by government authorities, specialists and business representatives and highlighted CABEI’s systematic support for the consolidation of the integration process. The efforts will allow a reduction in the asymmetry in growth and development among the region’s countries. To that end it is vital to coordinate efforts from a regional perspective, based on the interests of national authorities and the technical advice of the SICA organizations and secretariats.

Rojas emphasized the Banks’s creation of the Financing Program for Foreign Trade (COMEX), which provides resources to Intermediary Financial Institutions to support the import and export of goods and services, one of the existing credit lines of the Initiative to Facilitate International Trade (I-FACIL). Through 2015, in the framework of COMEX, CABEI had channeled intermediary resources amounting to US$192.1 million, and its active portfolio stood at US$46.4 million.

CABEI transforms regional trade and competitiveness
During its 55-year history, CABEI has approved more than US$28.9 billion to the region. It has focused its efforts to channel funds based on its member countries’ strategic needs and priorities.

In this context, the Bank has destined more than US$9.0 billion for productive infrastructure development (mainly highway infrastructure initiatives); US$6.4 billion for financial solutions through its IFI network; US$5.1 billion to promote energy initiatives; US$4.5 billion for human development and social infrastructure; US$3.0 billion to expand competitiveness-promoting services; and more than US$690.0 million for rural development and the environment.

CABEI has an important commitment to strengthening initiatives in favor of trade, industry, services, tourism and strategic infrastructure that contribute to greater economic growth and improved human development levels, pursuant to the focus on sustainable competitiveness set out in the Bank’s 2015-2019 Institutional Strategy, “Integrating Sustainable Development and Competitiveness.”