In 2022, the IDB’s Integration and Trade Sector (INT) prioritized strengthening regional value chains, digital trade, supporting regional SMEs, and empowering women entrepreneurs.
The IDB approved four operations totaling $413 million, including policy-based lending to promote Colombia‘s positioning in global value chains and enhance Uruguay‘s economic growth by modernizing the regulatory framework for international trade.
To accelerate growth in Belize, INT launched a trade and investment facilitation program that includes a Single Trade Window, an investment window, and a mechanism to foster productive linkages between SMEs and exporting companies.
According to the IDB, INT also led the approval of an investment program to improve processes and controls in the Honduran Customs Administration with technologies that facilitate trade while reducing tax fraud.
In December, INT launched the Central American Digital Trade Platform with funding from European Union resources.
This platform enables all the foreign trade IT systems of the six Central American countries to interoperate, allowing customs, risk, migration, health and security data to be uploaded at once.
This means that companies in these countries can export, transit and import goods without the need for a trader to submit documentation multiple times.
Regional value chains
INT’s Regional Integration Unit consolidated its position as a one-stop shop for IDB dialogue with subregional integration initiatives such as the Pacific Alliance, MERCOSUR, PROSUR, CARICOM and SICA/SIECA.
It worked to increase vaccination capacities in the PROSUR countries, training officials from MERCOSUR and SICA/SIECA member countries and executing two integration projects with CARICOM.
The Unit also supported new subregional integration initiatives such as the Alliance for Development in Democracy by conducting a technical study on opportunities in the health industry and a subregional trade promotion strategy.
It also identified opportunities for 20 countries in the region to join global value chains, focusing on priority sectors such as textiles, fisheries, rubber and plastics, business process outsourcing in the Northern Triangle and automotive chains in the Andean countries.
