Investment banks to put $10 billion into projects aimed at interconnecting South America

Four investment banks announced Thursday during a meeting of leaders of the Mercosur trade bloc that they will put $10 billion up for infrastructure works aimed at better connecting South America, including funds for port, airport, road, rail and power transmission projects. The “Routes for South American Integration” initiative was launched in Rio de Janeiro with host Brazil introducing a plan involving more than 120 projects, many of them in Brazil's north bordering Venezuela, Guyana, French Guyana and Suriname. The funds will come from the Inter-American Development Bank with $3.4 billion, the Development Bank of Latin American and the Caribbean with $3 billion, the Brazilian Development Bank with another $3 billion, and FONPLATA, a bank owned by Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, with $600 million more.