Specifically, voters have called for the city to balance its budget, open up the bidding process for public contracts, and start investing in infrastructure projects that are long overdue.

The current city administration has been busily pursuing that agenda (See "City Hall's new bargain hunters," IDBamérica, June, 1998), and is now set to get help from the IDB. A $200 million IDB loan approved last month will enable the government of the City of Buenos Aires to further a strategy of institutional modernization, fiscal reform, and investment planning.

The loan, which will be matched by $200 million from the city's coffers, will support activities in two broad areas. First, funds will be used to streamline the city's bureaucracy and increase efficiency and accountability in financial management and tax collection. The city's human resources administration will also be overhauled, along with its procurement and contracting departments.

The IDB credit will also support the city's long-term investment plan by financing up to 15 percent of annual spending on infrastructure and other projects. Disbursement of these funds will be contingent on meeting a set of fiscal discipline parameters and the inclusion of private sector participation in several areas.

This is the first time the IDB has helped to finance modernization of the state in Argentina at the local level. Previous projects affected the federal and provincial levels only.