MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile supports existing multilateral financial institutions

Chile's government ratified its purchase of 50 million US dollars in shares from Corporacion Andina de Fomento, the Andean region development agency known as CAF, El Mercurio reported.

President Michelle Bachelet's government signed the accord, which gives Chile a seat on CAF's board, in a ceremony during the Ibero-American summit in Santiago, the newspaper reported. Chile opted to support existing regional development agencies rather than Banco del Sur, a development bank championed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, El Mercurio cited foreign affairs minister Alejandro Foxley as saying. "This is a signal to the rest of the region in the sense that there are working institutions that do it very well and have all of our support, such as CAF and the Inter-American Development Bank", Foxley was quoted as saying.