MEDELLÍN, Colombia - The Japanese government will contribute $5 million to a fund managed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) that promotes investments in economically and environmentally sound energy options.
Japan will make the contribution to the IDB’s Sustainable Energy and Climate Change Initiative (SECCI) Multi-Donor Trust Fund. Japan’s Vice Minister of Finance Wataru Takeshita and IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno signed the agreement for the grant contribution today.
The core objectives of the initiative are to expand the development and use of renewable energy sources, energy efficiency technologies and practices in the region, as well as to promote and finance climate change adaptation strategies that reduce the regions climate vulnerability.
The IDB and two other Japanese development agencies also plan to sign separate agreements.
The IDB will sign tomorrow an agreement with the Japan Bank for International Corporation (JBIC), to look for opportunities to help Latin America and the Caribbean counteract the impact of the global financial crisis. The accord will seek to build a framework to provide long-term financing for major infrastructure and in critical social and economic investment projects for the region.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the IDB are to sign an agreement to offer financial support through concessional loans and technical assistance resources, for example, for projects in economic and social infrastructure as well as in relation to environment and climate change. Both institutions have already identified four potential candidate projects to be co-financed in 2009.
The IDB, through its Office of Outreach and Partnerships (ORP) has facilitated the accomplishment of these partnerships that will provide additional financial and non-financial resources to its member countries and is now effectively becoming the platform for doing business in the region.
The Government of Japan
The Government of Japan, in view of the urgent need to respond to the challenges in the region posed by the global economic and financial crisis, will create a Crisis Response Facility for technical assistance. This facility will support projects which directly benefit the poor and those projects responding to the crisis in the next three years. The $30 million for the Crisis Response Facility will be provided by new donation of the Japanese Government as well as through strengthening and reformulation of Japan Poverty Reduction Program.