Senate approves US$9mn loan for Pilar expansion

Paraguay's senate has approved a US$9mn loan from the River Plate basin development fund Fonplata for the expansion and modernization of Pilar port, local newspaper Última Hora reported. The bill will now go before the lower house for its reviewal and possible approval. The loan was approved over fierce criticisms that it would have a detrimental effect on the country's finances. "With this loan our country's external debt will increase, because it is a commercial loan with high interest rates," said the senate's departmental affairs committee VP Alfredo Ratti. Ratti added that preliminary studies placed port expansion costs at US$6mn, not the US$9mn that was approved. Pilar lies on the Paraguay river in Ñeembucú department on the border with Argentina, some 50km north of the Paraná confluence. The project aims to help ease increased demand on other river ports - such as capital Asunción's - in the landlocked country, and to facilitate increased trade with neighboring Argentina. Seventy percent of Paraguay's foreign trade is channeled through the Paraguay and Paraná rivers. The Paraguayan government announced in April that it was trying to secure US$1mn to study the feasibility of building a bridge across the Paraguay river, connecting Pilar and Puerto Bermejo in Argentina.