Puebla-Panama Plan - Goals and Financing

Goals and Financing

The Plan Puebla Panamá is purportedly intended to remedy a lack of investment and stimulate trade in the region by building or improving large infrastructure projects such as highways, air and sea ports, and electric and telecommunications grids. It consists of eight initiatives:

• Energy Sector Integration
• Transportation Integration
• Telecommunications Integration
• Trade Facilitation
• Sustainable Development
• Human Development
• Tourism
• Disaster Prevention and Mitigation

According to the Presidency of Mexico, the percentage of funding allocated for each of these projects is: Transportation, 85.2%; Electrical, 11.1%, Tourism, 1.3%, Human Development, 0.8%, Disasters, 0.7%, Trade, 0.6%, Sustainable Development, 0.4%; and Telecommunications, 0.03%.

These projects are to take place along five principal axes (or corridors) of development:

• The Pacific Axis, which bears the majority of trade in the region
• The Gulf of Honduras Axis, to develop trade between the Pacific and the cities in the Caribbean region
• The Petén Axis, which runs from Puerto Cortés, Honduras to Villahermosa, Mexico
• The Mexico Trans-systemic Axis, consisting of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
• The Guatemala/Yucatán Axis

According to a study by the US-based nonprofit InterAction, $7.7 billion in funding for the Plan Puebla Panamá had been designated as of March 2005; the amount is eventually expected to rise as high as $50 billion. Of this funding, 35% comes from national governments in the region, 24% from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), 15% from the private sector, 7.5% from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE), 5% from the World Bank, 6.3% from other sources (the remaining funding could not be determined).