WASHINGTON, USA – The board of executive directors of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved a $20 million loan to boost Uruguay’s exports and investments and increase business productivity through greater integration into global markets.
The program is the second operation under the Conditional Credit Line for Investment Projects (CCLIP) “Program for Productive Development of Uruguay through Internationalisation, Innovation, and Talent.” The goal of this credit line is to simplify and streamline procedures for exporting and investing, and to strengthen the effectiveness of export and investment promotion instruments, ensuring their complementarity with other business support services.
The program, which will be implemented by Uruguay XXI, will modernise and simplify processes for the Foreign Trade Single Window (VUCE) and the Investment Single Window (VUI), reducing time and costs for companies. It will also strengthen export and investment promotion tools, with a special focus on sectors such as life sciences, global services, audiovisual industries, and renewable energy.
Additionally, the program will create a monitoring and evaluation unit, develop digital platforms for institutional interoperability, and incorporate predictive technologies and artificial intelligence. It will also promote the adoption of a green taxonomy to facilitate access to markets that require sustainability standards.
The program will benefit exporting companies and MSMEs, as well as investors and public agencies, by reducing time and costs for export and investment procedures and providing integrated tools to facilitate internationalisation.
This plan aligns with the South Connection program by addressing bottlenecks that limit global integration and the competitiveness of Uruguay’s productive sector, strengthening its integration into regional value chains and its insertion into global markets.
The loan has a repayment term of 22.5 years, an eight-year grace period, and an interest rate based on SOFR. Financing will be complemented by a local counterpart of $2.6 million, for a total of $22.6 million.