MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina after 8 billion in loans for infrastructure

Ministry Martín Lousteau

Argentina's Economy Ministry Martín Lousteau with a delegation of provincial governors and experts from his office traveled to Miami for the annual meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank to discuss terms for a four year credit program totaling 8 billion US dollars in infrastructure and education.

The delegation met with the IDB president Luis Martín Moreno and according to the Argentine press they examined the bilateral work agenda and the financing of future projects. The soft loans would be implemented in a period of four years including 2011, following on the experience of 2003 when the IDB agreed to 6 billion US dollars in funding for projects until 2007. IDB is one of the few financial institutions which extend credits to Argentina since the country decided to severe links with the IMF. Argentina still has pending debts with the Paris Club, which represents from 19 developed countries. Loustean and IDB's Moreno agreed on an initial loan of 120 million dollars which is to be used for water and sanitation projects in towns with a population of up to 50,000. The work is to be carried out by ENOHSA, an Argentine state organization which specializes in this kind of work and which is subsumed to the national Planning, Public Investment and Services Ministry. The loan agreement is part of a broader finance plan amounting to some 360 million dollars. According to official Argentine sources one of the loans involved will be of 100 million dollars at its first stage, eventually amounting to 300 million, and would be allotted to SENASA, the state food safety and quality agency. There would also be a loan, eventually amounting to some 600 million dollars the first 200 hundred million of which would go to Prosap II, a programme aimed at improving agricultural services in the provinces. Lousteau is scheduled to address the governors of the multilateral organization and hold meetings with his Mexican and Brazilian counterparts.