CAF approves $460 million to El Salvador for airport INFRASTRUCTURE and underwater internet cable

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By LatAm Reports Staff Writers

The funds will be earmarked for the construction and refurbishment of two airports and an airfield, and for an undersea cable. 

The Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF) approved two credits for El Salvador, amounting to $465 million, the resources of which will be used for airport infrastructure and an underwater cable.

In a statement, the CAF detailed that an operation includes $320 million, which will finance the program “El Salvador Vuela.”

This program envisages the start of the construction of Pacific Airport, in La Unión, as well as the modernization of Ilopango International Airport, and the design of the Tonalá airfield.

The second operation includes $145 million for the project “Strengthening of Connectivity Sovereignty: Underwater Cable.

According to the institution, the underwater cable will connect El Salvador with the most important traffic hubs and content. The operation includes capacity-building of the Superintendency General of Electricity and Telecommunications (SIGET) for the administration of the infrastructure.

The new Pacific airport and an independent undersea Internet cable, said the President of the Republic, Nayib Bukele, after the approval was disseminated on social networks.

For his part, the executive president of the CAF, Sergio Díaz-Granados, indicated that the submarine cable will improve El Salvador’s Internet access through the use of fiber optics for educational use, telemedicine and public administration.

In 2023, the CAF approved more than $296 million for the development of different programs in El Salvador. In detail, $295 million corresponds to funds as sovereign risk, and $1 million was sovereign guarantee.

El Salvador joined the CAF in 2022 and, since then, $596 million has been approved for different programs.

This article has been translated after first appearing in Diario El Mundo