The Inter-American Development Bank today announced the approval of two loans to Bolivia for a total of $35.5 million for a program of land regularization and legal cadastre and another one to support rural productive development.
The operations approved by the IDB Board of Executive Directors consist of concessional resources from the Bank’s Fund for Special Operations for a 40-year term, a 10-year grace period, at an interest rate of 1 percent during the first decade and 2 percent afterwards.
The loans are in accordance with the IDB strategy for Bolivia, which seeks to promote economic growth and productivity, create new opportunities, develop human capital and access to social services, consolidate reforms, reduce poverty and promote equity.
Land regularization and legal cadastre
A $22 million loan will support a program to regularize rural property rights to increase productive investment.
The program will apply to over 20.5 million hectares in the departments of Santa Cruz and Pando. The technical consolidation of the legal cadastre will also improve municipal tax recollection capacity.
Clear property rights create confidence and allow producers access to financial markets with indebtedness capacity, promoting investments to increase productivity in agriculture, livestock and forestry.
“This program will help move forward the land regularization process and will set the foundations for the consolidation of the legal cadastre as an instrument to bring judicial security to the property rights”, said IDB project team leader, Héctor R. Malarín. “Agriculture is a strategic economic sector in Bolivia. Guaranteeing land property rights is indispensable to sustained growth of the sector in the long range,” he added.
Support for rural productive development
The other program approved today for Bolivia with a $13.5 million loan will support a program for rural productive development.
The project will contribute to a sustained reduction of rural poverty levels. Resources will finance productive investments to create employment opportunities and greater income for the rural population and will support the preparation of projects. The program is expected to help implement 30 business plans that will benefit around 3,000 rural low-income producers.