That's because the forum was held at the new Miraflores Park Plaza, a luxurious five-star hotel overlooking the Pacific Ocean just outside Lima. "The hotel offers a breathtaking vista, especially in the evening," recalled Jorge Zavaleta, an IDB press representative who attended the meeting.

The topic of the forum could not have been more appropriate. That's because the Miraflores Park Plaza was itself the beneficiary of long-term financing that is still hard for many medium-sized businesses in the region to obtain. The developers of the hotel, Inversiones Malecón de la Reserva S. A., financed the $13 million project with a combination of their own funds, loans from private banks, and long-term credit provided by Peru's Corporación Financiera de Desarrollo (COFIDE). COFIDE administers PROBID, a $167 million vehicle for loans to medium-sized businesses that is 60 percent capitalized by an IDB loan.

The Miraflores Park Plaza is among the most visible fruits of an unprecedented boom in new hotel construction in Peru. Drawn by the country's economic and political recovery, the number of foreign visitors to Peru has exploded in recent years, from 485,000 in 1995 to an estimated 750,000 in 1997. To meet new demand, some 20 new hotels have been built in the country in the 1990s. Several of these hotels are catering to the growing percentage of foreign business people who demand top-of-the-line accommodations and service.

PROBID has helped finance several other hotel and tourism infrastructure projects in Peru's principal cities, according to Zavaleta. Another IDB loan program, known as Micro Global, for the last two years has been providing credit for the country's smallest businesses. Now, the IDB and COFIDE are negotiating the terms of a new $35 million microcredit program to succeed Micro Global, along with $70 million to support businesses somewhat larger and more established than microenterprises.