© Reuters. The EIB evaluates granting a loan for electrical interconnection between Ecuador and Peru
Quito, Mar 16 (.).- The European Investment Bank (EIB) anticipates that its next contribution to Ecuador, the Latin American country with the highest financing per capita, will be a loan to finance the electrical interconnection project between Ecuador and Peru.
This was confirmed in an interview with EFE by the Vice President of the EIB, Ricardo Mourinho Félix, during his three-day visit to Ecuador, in which he reviewed projects financed by the European institution and signed a 100 million dollar loan with the Government to support child vaccination.
The Portuguese economist did not specify the amount that this new loan for electrical interconnection will amount to, although he anticipated that it will probably be above 100 million dollars, along with another similar amount that will also be provided by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and other partners.
Mourinho Félix specified that this financing will only be for the works on the Ecuadorian side and that similar amounts will be required to finance the infrastructure on the Peruvian side of the border.
“It will be a two-way connection, so that surplus energy production can circulate between the two countries and create a more efficient energy market that can lower energy costs in this region of America,” explained Mourinho Félix.
“Also to increase energy resilience and that clean energy can circulate and have a stable energy supply, so that there are no energy losses, because energy is difficult to store and increase energy security,” he added.
875 MILLION DOLLARS IN
The vice president of the EIB highlighted the importance that Ecuador has for his organization and for the European Union (EU) as it is the country with the highest per capita financing of the Bank in Latin America, with 875 million dollars since 2006.
Thus, he was confident that they can reach 1,000 million in financing in Ecuador with the electrical interconnection project with Peru.
THE BDE .OR KEY PARTNER
During his stay in Ecuador, Mourinho Félix also discussed with the Development Bank of Ecuador (BDE) the implementation of another 100 million dollar loan signed last year for drinking water and sanitation works in municipalities in Ecuador.
“The larger projects we can finance directly, but for smaller projects we have to have an intermediary, and the BDE knows Ecuador well. We hope that in the first half of 2023 the financing will reach the municipalities for these local projects,” he said.
During his stay in Ecuador, Mourinho Félix also visited a Quito Metro station, built by the Spanish company Acciona (BME:) and about to start commercial operations.
He also supervised water and sanitation works in the province of Manabí and the inauguration of a shopping center in the city of Portoviejo, built with EIB funds for the reconstruction of the areas affected by the 2016 earthquake.
(Photo / Video)
