The Diplomat
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) to strengthen economic cooperation and promote sustainable development in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The objective of the agreement, signed yesterday by the Secretary of State for Trade, Amparo López Senovilla, and the Executive President of the CABEI, Gisela Sánchez, is to formalize a framework for collaboration that facilitates the promotion and financing of projects in countries and sectors of common interest with the support of the Fund for the Internationalization of Business (FIEM), an instrument of the Secretary of State for Trade linked to the internationalization of Spanish companies.
Through this agreement, projects in the Central American region that promote economic integration and the economic and social development of the countries in the region will be jointly financed, while at the same time promoting the internationalization of Spanish companies in this region.
To this end, the Memorandum of Understanding establishes two main areas of collaboration: non-reimbursable financing from the FIEM, which will allow the financing of studies contracted with the CABEI and carried out by Spanish companies and which contribute to generating subsequent projects with a significant export pull for Spain; and reimbursable financing by FIEM, which will be carried out in part of the projects awarded to Spanish companies, provided that the maximization of the effective Spanish content in said projects is guaranteed.
The signing of this MOU, according to the Government, is a reflection of Spain’s commitment to the European “Global Gateway” strategy, which prioritizes international cooperation to promote sustainable economic development and social inclusion in developing countries. To achieve this goal, the strategy plans to mobilize an investment of up to 300 billion euros until 2027 in projects framed in the digital, climate and energy, transport, health, and education and research sectors.
Spain, aligned with this strategy, has placed particular emphasis on the Investment Agenda for Latin America and the Caribbean, approved at the EU-CELAC Summit in July 2023, under the Spanish presidency of the Council of the European Union.
This strategy is led in Spain by the State Secretariat for Trade, which acts as a point of contact with the Directorate General for International Associations (INTPA) of the European Commission and other ministries involved. It also leads the Interministerial Group for Monitoring the EU-Latin America and the Caribbean Investment Agenda.
The CABEI is a multilateral development bank with 63 years of experience and 15 member countries. In the last 20 years, the projects financed by the CABEI represent approximately 50% of the funds from multilateral development banks for the Central American region.
