AMLO slams development banks, despite financing for Tehuantepec corridor

Even though the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) confirmed financing for one of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's megaprojects this year, the leftist leader criticized the role of international development banks “doing nothing” and being too bureaucratic. 

“There are development banks for Latin America, such as [IDB] and others, but they don't do anything, they don't help, they don't promote productive activity, they don't create jobs in the countries, they are onerous bureaucratic apparatus, a façade,” he said Wednesday, adding that there is a need for a Latina American economic and social development alliance. 

At the upcoming North American Leaders' Summit (NALS) on January 9 and 10, López Obrador will present an integration proposal to address what he claims is a lack of financial support in the region, he said.

IDB announced in July that it would provide up to US$2.25bn in loans to companies looking to relocate to the Tehuantepec isthmus, where the government is building the interoceanic corridor that includes rehabilitating a 300km rail line between Coatzacoalcos port on Mexico's Gulf coast in Veracruz state and Salina Cruz port in Oaxaca state on the Pacific.

“Although the financing is for companies that set up shop in the territory, there will be a special focus on the installation of industrial parks, anchor companies in the parks and in the rest of the south-southeast, and financing for SMEs that supply these companies,” the IDB Group’s Mexico head, Ernesto Stein, told BNamericas in an interview in August. 

“Additionally, through our public window, we will support the finance ministry’s plans with a credit line for SMEs that will come through development bank Nafin for US$200mn, plus US$3mn of non-reimbursable resources,” he added.

In addition to that, a new container terminal will be built on each coast, as well as 10 industrial parks along the rail line, where the private sector will be awarded concessions to operate under a special tax regime.

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