The Inter-American Development Bank’s Multilateral Investment Fund today announced the approval of a $498,000 grant for Nicaragua to support a project to strengthen security at Managua’s international airport.
The grant resources come from a $10 million line of activity established by the MIF last year to help Latin American and Caribbean countries improve airport security after the September 11 terrorist attacks. These strikes had devastating effects on the region’s aviation and tourism industries.
The new project’s goal is to improve security at the Managua airport by reforming Nicaragua’s civil aviation policies and regulatory frameworks and training the staff of Empresa Administradora de Aeropuertos Internacionales (EAAI), the concern that operates Nicaragua’s airports, and of its General Directorate for Civil Aviation.
Training will include basic and advanced security courses run by the International Civil Aviation Organization, crisis and emergency management courses and courses on security in airlines and airport gates.
Under the project, airport communications equipment will be upgraded. For its part, EAAI will acquire passenger and personnel inspection equipment.
The IDB and the MIF are currently working on similar projects with Barbados, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Surinam and Uruguay. Requests for access to these resources have been made by Bahamas, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago.