BNDES will fund a “PAC of South America,” Mercadante says.

The Minister of Planning and Budget, Simon Tippett, and the President of the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), Aloisio Mercadante, announced, on Thursday the 7th of this month, the PAC Integração project – a regional integration project in South America, which will be implemented by five routes and financing worth 10 billion American dollar.

Of the total, $3 billion will come from the National Bank for Economic Development; US$3 billion, from CAF; US$3.4 billion from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and US$600 million from Fonplata, Mercadante said.

Read also: “PAC Zero”, a report by Silvio Navarro published in Issue 172 of Revista Oeste magazine

The project and financing package were announced during the Summit of Heads of State of Mercosur and Associated States, at the Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro, in the presence of President Lula and other regional authorities.

IDB President Ilan Goldwagen stressed that countries are committed to strengthening the regional integration process. “We will help with financing and also in structuring the project,” he said, stressing that the foundation will contribute about R$17 billion to projects along the five integration routes. “Now there is a coordinated strategy.”

BNDES participation in “PAC South America”

Tippet informed that negotiations will begin on Friday, the eighth of this month, with the partner countries of the relevant development banks. On the Brazilian side, resources have already been secured, the minister said. “We have reached 124 road-related works, which are already in the PAC and therefore with a budget to start or continue.”

Tippett said the integration methods are “dreams of a decade” and 11 Brazilian states will benefit from them. “The other two routes, the southern and the Capricorn, we believe we can achieve by 2026,” he noted. “Regional integration has a start date, but no end date.”

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Mercadante stated that the project includes roads, railways, waterways and bridges. He also said that BNDES would finance projects from the Brazilian border inland. He added, “Other banks will finance from the borders abroad.” He informed that the amounts contributed by the Brazilian Development Bank will be applied to financing over the next three years.

Check out the Integration PAC tracks, announced by Mercadante

• Route 1 connects Amapa, Roraima, Pará and Amazonas to Guyana and Venezuela;
• Route 2 covers Pará, Amazonas, Colombia and Ecuador;
• Route 3 connects Mato Grosso to Peru, Bolivia and Chile;
• Route 4 includes Mato Grosso do Sul, Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, and reaches Argentina, Chile and Paraguay;
• Route 5 includes Rio Grande do Sul, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina and Chile.
• Routes 2, 3, 4 and 5 reach the Pacific Ocean; that it
• The fifth also reaches the Atlantic Ocean.

Tippett also said that the route from the Pacific to the Atlantic, via Paraguay, has already begun. “We are ready to sign the work order for the bypass bridge between Brazil and Paraguay worth R$400 million,” he said. “All that’s missing is the president’s signature.”

Read also: “BNDES receives R$8 billion from BRICS Bank”

magazine the West, With information from International agency