Water, road and hospital infrastructure projects are firmly underway in Costa Rica with CABEI financial support

San José, May 28, 2021. - The recent inauguration of works such as the Bicentennial traffic circle in Guadalupe, the new bridge over the Virilla River on Route 32, or the East Tower of the Calderón Guardia Hospital are examples of the firm execution of projects of great national importance in Costa Rica that counted on the financial support of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) in a challenging year such as 2020.

Despite the health and economic crisis, neither CABEI nor the government authorities put a pause to the works, CABEI Executive President, Dante Mossi, told the Costa Rican media on Friday, to whom he detailed that the Bank's active portfolio in the country amounts to US$1,276 million.

This amount translates into seven programs consisting of various projects, five of which are related to water, sanitation and sewerage works in different parts of the country; one with hospital infrastructure and equipment; and another, the most tangible to the eyes of drivers and bystanders in San José, with road infrastructure.

"CABEI is very pleased to know that the operations we support financially in Costa Rica were not affected in spite of the crisis and that they contributed to maintaining employment sources. We are also pleased to know that we had the capacity to be the first multilateral development institution to heed the heads of state's call to provide support to deal with the pandemic when it reached our region," said Mossi.

In this regard, CABEI, through its COVID-19 Emergency Support, Preparedness and Economic Reactivation Program, disbursed a total of US$24 million in 2020 for the benefit of MIPYMES, productive sectors and Costa Rican foreign trade, and made grants totaling more than US$2 million.

Also during 2020, CABEI approved US$705 million to Costa Rica for the development of important operations such as the Fifth Stage Metropolitan Aqueduct Supply Project (PAAM); the loan for the creation of the National Guarantee and Guaranty Fund; and the addendum to complete the North Ring Road, which is expected to positively impact more than 649,000 families and generate more than 3,700 permanent jobs, 26% of which will be for women.

In this first four-month period of 2021, CABEI also approved two operations of great value, such as a new hospital infrastructure and equipment program, as well as financing for the acquisition of vaccines against COVID-19.

"As we can see, at CABEI we are confident that Costa Rica has the capacity to execute projects of great magnitude and that is why we approved what was the largest loan in the Bank's history to finance the state's contribution to the construction and start-up of the Electric Passenger Train, a project that will put our region in the eyes of the world," concluded Mossi.

Funding for the Gran Área Metropolitana Electric Passenger Train was approved by CABEI to Costa Rica for US$550 million under very competitive financial conditions due to the nature and positive impacts on competitiveness and the environment that its development would entail. It is currently being analyzed by its strategic ally, the Green Climate Fund, which as a participant would maintain a fixed effective interest rate of 1.5% per annum.