Press Release

Key transport corridor in Honduras to be upgraded with US$7 million OPEC Fund loan

39/2005 April 21, 2005, Vienna, Austria

The OPEC Fund for International Development today signed a US$7 million loan agreement with the Republic of Honduras to co-finance the rehabilitation and expansion of sections of the Atlantic Road Corridor, the CA-5 North, which is an integral part of the International Network of Mesoamerican Highways. The project has been accorded high priority by Government as part of its ongoing efforts to rebuild and upgrade portions of the country’s main road network which were damaged by Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

The 295 km CA-5 North road is one of Honduras’ major trading corridors. Constructed in the 1960s and receiving little in the way of maintenance since then, many portions are now in poor condition and unable to support current traffic levels. Under the project, three critical sections of the CA-5 will be lengthened, widened and fully rehabilitated. Bridges will be built where needed, road signaling, lighting and pedestrian crossings installed and protective barriers built. In addition, the project will devise a safety program to cover up to 350 km of Honduras’ roads.

Once completed, the project is expected to aid regional integration and help Honduras boost its competitiveness by improving road transport and safety conditions and reducing operating costs and travel time.

This loan represents the Fund’s fifth direct intervention in support of Honduras’ transportation sector. The Fund has also approved 17 other loans: one for balance of payments support; one to provide debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative; and 15 for public sector projects in the energy, multi-sectoral and water supply and sewerage sectors. Honduras has benefited, as well, from several grants and is a participating country in the Fund’s joint initiative with UNFPA against HIV/AIDS in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Today’s agreement was signed in Vienna by H.E. Mr. Ralph Oberholzer, Vice Minister of Credit and Public Investment of the Republic of Honduras, and by H.E. Mr. Jamal Nasser Lootah, Chairman of the Governing Board of the OPEC Fund.

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