Business

September 20, 2000

U.S. to finance projects in Americas

HispanicVista.com

WASHINGTON — Acting to help some Latin American and the Caribbean countries meet their infrastructure needs, the Board of Directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) approved three projects totaling more than $312 million in financing and political risk insurance.

“Each of these projects addresses critical infrastructure needs – housing, electricity, water provision and telecommunications – that will equip developing countries with the resources to become emerging markets for U.S. goods and services,” said OPIC President and CEO George Munoz. “That OPIC has found in each case enthusiastic U.S. partners to help meet those needs speaks to a new
model for economic development that is beneficial to both the host country and American businesses.”

The board approved a $39 million loan guaranty to help establish a secondary mortgage loan market in Costa Rica — the first housing project in agency history. The project will establish a new company that, using bonds sold on U.S. capital markets, will acquire mortgage loans originated by Costa Rican banks. A portion of the bonds will be sold to a U.S. capital markets investor, who will be
the beneficiary of the loan guaranty.

The Board approved the project with the recognition that Costa Rica still needed to undertake reforms in the areas of property right recognition and expropriation. The completion of OPIC’s role in the project would be linked to Costa Rica’s progress in those matters.

OPIC approved a $53.4 million loan guaranty for the construction and operation of a 29-million-gallon per day desalination facility in Trinidad that is critical to the island
nation’s effort to reduce water rationing.

The project will enable the Water and Sewerage Authority of Trinidad and Tobago to provide a dedicated source of water to an industrial park. The water currently being used by the park will be made available to enhance supply to a large segment of domestic consumers in both central and south Trinidad.

A Watertown, Mass.-based water purification company, Ionics Inc., will serve as the U.S. sponsor for the
project.

Finally, the board approved $200 million in political risk
insurance for the expansion and refinancing of the cellular
telecommunications systems for one of Colombia's leading cellular companies, Celumovil.

The company, which is two-thirds owned by BellSouth Corporation, has 500,000 subscribers primarily in the
northern and eastern regions of the country, including the capital of Bogota. Of the $750 million total project cost, $100-150 million will be used for system expansion, and $600-650 million for refinancing of existing debt.

OPIC is a self-sustaining federal agency that sells investment products to small, medium and large American businesses expanding into some 140 developing nations and emerging markets around the
world.