Coordination and Partnerships

FOMILENIO attracted private-sector financing in 2009 from Virginia-based power firm AES Corporation for construction and operation of electricity distribution networks under the Community Development Activity of the Human Development Project. The public-private partnership built 1,300 kilometers of power lines, as well as connections and extensions throughout the Northern Zone. MCC and the Government of El Salvador funded up to 85 percent of the electrification intervention, with AES El Salvador funding the remainder. This public-private partnership between FOMILENIO and AES helped to ensure continuity and sustainability of the investment after the electrification activity ended. The contract required AES to oversee all operations and ongoing maintenance of the transmission lines in accordance with local law and industry best practice.
Three technical assistance grant agreements between the U.S. Trade and Development Agency and the Government of El Salvador, totaling over $1.3 million, were signed in 2008 that helped to improve highways; connect roads, electricity, water, and communications; and provide business support services.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) signed a Global Development Alliance grant for $500,000 in alliance with Super Selectos, a national chain of grocery stores, to assist El Salvador Produce, a commercial cooperative society composed of 20 fruit and vegetable producer organizations established within the Productive Development Project. The USAID grant built the complete cold storage chain for the commercialization activities of El Salvador Produce.
Using the compact as leverage, and with the support of MCC, the Government of El Salvador received a $48 million loan from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration in 2011 to rehabilitate a 42 km degraded and lower-standard segment of the Northern Transnational Highway, between Nueva Concepcion and Chalatenango.
As part of compact closure, FOMILENIO planned for the dissolution of financial assets from the FIDENORTE loan, Progara Norte and SGR loan guarantee programs. FOMILENIO determined that the reflows from all three programs would be granted to two organizations that agreed to match the funds—FIAES, an environmental trust, and FGK, a foundation providing scholarships and leadership programs for low-income, high capacity youth in the Northern Zone.