Cabei to focus on 2 key projects in El Salvador in 2023

The Central American Bank for Economic Integration (Cabei) will invest up to US$1bn in El Salvador next year, focusing on the Pacific train and supporting the US$411mn Los Chorros project with a US$166mn loan. 

Pacific Train 

The rail line involves 342km of existing and 193km of new rails. Phase 1 will link Acajutla and Sonsonate city and involve 103km of new rails.

Links to Guatemalan and US rail systems, as well as Mexico’s Maya train, are also planned.

Strategic projects coordinator Christian Flores said on Twitter that the feasibility studies, involving the public works and transport ministry (MOP), were finished in September. 

“In the mid and long terms, this project will add to the economic development at a local and a national level, and boost the region’s interconnectivity,” Flores said recently.  

“[The project] has implicated a series of decisions regarding investment, but we can now say that the train as such will move forward,” local Cabei chief Luis Eduardo Rodríguez was quoted as saying by local press.

Los Chorros project

Works include the new Francisco Morazán viaduct and expanding highway CA01W to eight lanes in the Santa Tecla, Colón and San Juan Opico municipalities, La Libertad department.

The three-phase expansion is part of the western corridor masterplan and aimed at improving mobility, safety and logistics to boost trade.

Last week, public works and transport minister Romeo Herrera told a TV broadcaster that South Korean companies are interested in bidding for construction contracts.

He also mentioned that financing is available at a rate of 0.10%, at 35-year terms and a 10-year grace period.

Congress recently approved tax breaks for firms that will build the viaduct.

Legislators also approved the loan the finance ministry and Cabei agreed for the project.