LatinNews Daily - 08 June 2020

* Paraguay’s President Mario Abdo Benítez has approved in general terms a plan for economic reactivation presented by the finance ministry’s national economic team (EEN). The US$2bn initiative to kickstart the economy in the wake of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic includes infrastructure projects, the formalisation of informal labour, support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and a new public development bank. In a statement, the finance ministry added that President Abdo Benítez has also called for a reform to the state, which implies the streamlining of public expenditure and the digitalisation of state services to citizens. The ministry specified that the economic reactivation plan will be not be financed by new debt, but by existing resources factored into the budget, with the possibility of issuing bonds on the domestic market if necessary. Deputy economy minister and executive secretary of the EEN, Humberto Colmán, said that the plan will focus on three large infrastructure works financed by private-public partnerships (PPP) in particular, notably the construction of new roads and of a new industrial shipping canal, the ‘hidrovía Paraguay-Paraná’.

End of preview - This article contains approximately 177 words.

Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article

Not a Subscriber?

Choose from one of the following options

• Subscribe
• Sign up for a one-time, 14-day trial