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U.S. Providing $120 Million To Spur Investment in Central America Funds going to El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, OPIC announces
Washington -- The U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) is providing at least $120 million to spur investment in three Central American nations that are signatories to a free-trade agreement with the United States -- El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. In a May 16 statement, OPIC said the money will provide finance and political risk insurance in those three countries where the U.S. free-trade agreement with Central America and the Dominican Republic, known as CAFTA-DR, has entered into force. OPIC said its president, Robert Mosbacher Jr., will discuss the new investment package during his May 16-19 trip to the three Central American nations.
OPIC said the financing comprises its support for a new private equity investment fund for Central America, Mexico and Colombia; an OPIC loan to fund microfinance institutions in the region; OPIC loans for a series of housing construction and mortgage financing projects that will help relieve the region's substantial housing need; and an agricultural project in Nicaragua that features both OPIC financing and political risk insurance.
The OPIC insurance projects being announced during Mosbacher's trip include an offshore oil and gas exploration project in Nicaragua, and U.S. small business projects in Honduras and Nicaragua. Joining Mosbacher on the trip are representatives from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation. Mosbacher said that "increasing investment in Central America is a central goal of CAFTA-DR, which is the first trade agreement to establish a Committee on Trade Capacity Building. The fact that, in the space of eight months since CAFTA-DR was enacted, OPIC has marshaled $120 million to support investment in the region, demonstrates both OPIC's commitment to CAFTA-DR and to a growing realization that Central America is a profitable destination for U.S. investment dollars."
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Investment Management 
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