The Inter-American Development Bank today announced the approval of a $5 million loan to Argentina to support the process of shaping and strengthening foreign trade policy.
The program includes the institutional strengthening of the External Trade Subscretariat* of the Secretariat of Industry, Trade, and Mining – which will carry out the initiative – and it will help coordinate trade policy with the private sector and provincial government bodies.
The resources will support training of technical personnel as well as advisory assistance and implementation of new information and organizational technologies in the technical and administrative processes of the subsecretariat, which will be enhanced in its capacity for analysis, design, management and evaluation of the instruments of foreign trade and their effectiveness.
Financing also will be provided for the dissemination, coordination and establishment of a trade information network and the design of pilot export sector programs in order to encourage trade opportunities to be maximized more fully by the private sector and to enhance Argentina’s competitive position in world markets.
The total cost of the program is $8 million. The IDB loan is for a 20-year term, with a three-year grace period, at the variable annual interest rate, now 6.84 percent. Local counterpart funds total $3 million.