Narrative
Full Description
Project narrative
On December 19, 2023, the steering committee of the Multilateral Cooperation Center for Development Finance (MCDF) approved a US$500,000 grant to support the development of a new submarine internet cable originating in El Salvador. The grant will fund a review of the technical, legal, financial, and environmental safeguards for the project, which aims to connect El Salvador to other countries through Panama. The MCDF is a multilateral facility backed by China’s Ministry of Finance and supported by institutions such as CAF (Development Bank of Latin America), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and the World Bank. These multilateral banks are co-financing stakeholders in MCDF and, through it, are jointly supporting this preparatory study. The Chinese Ministry of Finance is the only Chinese government institution directly involved in this project via its role in MCDF.
Staff comments
1. Although the US$500,000 grant was issued through the Multilateral Cooperation Center for Development Finance (MCDF), China’s Ministry of Finance is the founding and primary financial contributor to the MCDF. Given China’s disproportionate capital share and leading role in the facility, we attribute 80% (US$400,000) of the grant amount to China. The remaining 20% is treated as co-financing from other multilateral stakeholders (CAF, IDB, AIIB, EBRD, and the World Bank). No disaggregated financing breakdown has been disclosed publicly by MCDF for this project.