SANTIAGO, Chile - Inter-American Development Bank President Enrique V. Iglesias and Chile’s budget director for the Finance Ministry, Mario Marcel Cullell, signed documents for a $1,250,000 grant from the Multilateral Investment Fund to support a government effort to modernize the surface mass transit system of the metropolitan area of Santiago.
The resources will assist in carrying out the 2000-2006 Santiago Urban Transit Plan, designed to reduce costs, improve service, and curb air pollution. In particular, it will support the preparation of the tendering of bus services scheduled for late 2003. MIF activities will assist in designing an improved regulatory and legal structure and a system of technical and routing requirements that will form the basis for a new concession system. This will encourage greater private investment, organization, and integration in the surface transportation system.
Support will be provided to existing private operators so they may better participate in the new system.
The Chilean government will contribute $1,250,000 to the preparatory project, which will be carried out by the Subsecretariat of Transport of the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications.
The Multilateral Investment Fund, a member of the IDB Group, provides grants and investments to accelerate private sector development and help improve the climate for investment in Latin America and the Caribbean.