Spotlight: Cabei-South Korea support for the LatAm ICT sector

The Central American Bank for Economic Integration (Cabei) is supporting the regional ICT sector with funds and cooperation agreements backed by South Korea.

“The financing Cabei offers for technological development in the region is close to US$300mn,” Cabei head Dante Mossi told BNamericas.

Together with South Korea, Cabei will support members of the Central American integration system (SICA) to improve broadband connectivity.

South Korea and Cabei agreed to promote debate on technology and innovation, create political momentum to advance change, transfer knowledge, and develop partnerships and strategic collaboration in several countries in the region.

EL SALVADOR

Cabei is financing a US$215mn program for schools to reduce the digital divide, involving the purchase of 592,000 laptops and 6,800 special devices for teachers and students, including physically impaired people. 

"This operation arose in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic that forced the suspension of face-to-face classes in schools and highlighted the need to reinforce digitization to take advantage of the range of educational tools that are available," said Mossi.

Educational connectivity and internet access rates are expected to improve by 61 percentage points and 47 percentage points, while overall internet penetration is expected to rise 20 percentage points due to the program.

HONDURAS

In Honduras, Cabei has provided US$73mn for the modernization of the citizen identification system, involving the creation of a new database and ID card.

“The project has achieved important goals in record time, carrying out the biometric registration of Hondurans who are already part of the new citizen database, and has delivered more than 3.2mn IDs with international standards and high levels of reliability,” Mossi said.

ARGENTINA

A digital transformation pilot for 300 SMEs, including training of personnel and new technological infrastructure, is supported with US$50mn. 

The program also involves transformation 4.0 centers in three provinces.

OTHER PROJECTS

The Korea-Cabei single donor fund (KTF) provides non-reimbursable resources for projects involving South Korean technologies and solutions. So far, 20 technical cooperation operations worth US$10.5mn have been approved.

Among them is the modernization of the Dominican Republic’s customs management system for US$450,000, while US$700,000 were approved for smart agriculture in Costa Rica.

“[Cabei] has resources from the government of South Korea through the KTF, and the funds will prioritize support to the ICT sector throughout the region,” added Mossi.