PUEBLA-PANAMA
PLAN FINANCE COMMITTEE ANALYZES OUTLOOK FOR REGIONAL INTEGRATION AND
DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
At
a meeting hosted by the IDB, government delegates from Mexico and seven
Central American countries call for sound fiscal basis for Mesoamerican
plan
Government delegates
from Mexico and Central America, at a meeting hosted by the Inter-American
Development Bank, said that the Puebla-Panama Plan for regional integration
should be carried out with a strong sense of fiscal realism.
The plan, launched earlier
this year by the presidents of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras,
Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama and the prime minister of Belize, seeks
to boost development in their region, which lags the rest of Latin America
in key social and economic indicators.
At the closing of Monday’s
meeting of the Puebla-Panama Plan’s finance committee and its board
of executive commissioners, IDB President Enrique V. Iglesias told delegates
the plan presented an ideal opportunity to mobilize private and public
investments, attract concessional resources, press ahead with reforms
and involve civil society groups in its projects.
Iglesias also noted
the progress made so far in designing the plan’s projects. In June,
the region’s leaders asked the finance committee -- which includes
finance ministers from the eight participating countries -- to draft
by September 15 a report on the prospects for financing the Puebla-Panama
Plan’s projects.
As part of today’s
meeting, IDB officials outlined the results of the first rounds of talks
held with multilateral lending and development organizations and bilateral
aid agencies on the Puebla-Panama Plan’s projects and their potential
fiscal effects.
Finance ministers highlighted
the importance of involving the private sector in projects in order
to relieve pressure on public sector budgets and free up resources for
social programs. They also recommended that new programs build on existing
institutions to capitalize lessons learnt and avoid duplication of efforts.
The Puebla-Panama Plan’s
portfolio includes a project to connect and improve key highways to
reduce the cost of transport and foster trade within the region, another
project to interconnect national power grids to promote investment in
energy generation and cut the cost of electricity, and several projects
on cooperation for natural disaster prevention and mitigation.
On the social side,
the plan would involve low-income farmers, indigenous groups and Afro-Caribbean
communities in environmental management, sustainable use of natural
resources and community development projects. It would also include
a regional health program that would foster cooperation on issues like
AIDS.
The plan’s sustainable
development projects would bolster existing efforts such as the Mesoamerican
Biological Corridor, which is supported by several international, regional
and bilateral development agencies.
Another initiative will
promote tourism projects run by local communities, indigenous groups
and Afro-Caribbean groups and link them with other tourism services,
such as adventure and ecological tourism.
The trade facilitation initiative
will support the participation of small- and medium-size businesses
in export deals and encourage the elimination of non-tariff barriers
that restrict regional commerce.
The plan’s telecommunications
initiative, which is aimed at developing the region’s information
technology infrastructure, would be largely financed by private sector
investment.
Popular participation
and community outreach are expected to be key features of Puebla-Panama
Plan projects.
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