Ecobreves – MEXICO: Binational Bank Under Consideration

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

MEXICO CITY, Mar 11 2006 (IPS) - The Mexican and U.S. governments are assessing the viability of the North American Development Bank (NADB), the only binational instrument that finances basic infrastructure to improve the environment along the 3,200-km border between the two countries. “It would be a shame if the only credit institution for development along the border were to disappear, but I think the bank has had a low profile and perhaps the failure has been in communicating its benefits,” Eliseo Díaz, researcher at the Northern Frontier College, in the border city of Tijuana, told Tierramérica.

Created in the framework of the North American Free Trade Agreement, NADB has financed projects worth more than two billion dollars since it began operating in 1995. It is headquarted in the U.S. city of San Antonio, Texas.

The governors of the states on both sides of the border support NADB, and several U.S. lawmakers have announced that they will louldy oppose any effort to shut it down.