Presidents promote bi-national plan

Ecuador's President Lucio Gutierrez and his Peruvian counterpart Alejandro Toledo on Friday reaffirmed support for a plan to develop infrastructure projects along their countries' shared border. In a statement published on the Ecuadorian presidency's website, the two heads of state said priorities remain road corridors between the countries, the Puyango-Tumbes irrigation project, and rehabilitation of the Zarumilla international canal. The 10-year plan is a multilateral initiative that supports peace agreements signed between both countries in 1998 following years of intermittent border conflict. Some of the projects correspond to the Initiative for South American Regional Infrastructure Integration (IIRSA). Friendly governments and other organizations were called upon by the presidents to provide resources for some of the plan's projects, which have been hindered because of a lack of financial resources. Plans for construction of bi-national road 5 (Mendez-Sarameriza) are in progress with a view to completing the road in 2005, and a bidding process for studies to upgrade the Piura-Guayaquil highway (bi-national road 1) will begin shortly. Piura-Guayaquil's construction will be funded by a 40mn-euro (US$46mn) donation from the European Union. An EC official in Peru told BNamericas the funds would be spilt equally between each country. Signaling their commitment to the plan, the presidents pledged that their government's would give a minimum of US$3mn annually to a bi-national fund for peace and development to finance small and medium projects in the border region.