The first public-private partnership (APP) of El Salvador continues its march with the reception and opening, of the technical and economic offers of the international tender for the administration of the Cargo Terminal of the San Óscar Arnulfo Romero and Galdámez International Airport.
This project of the Government of El Salvador, through the Autonomous Executive Port Commission (CEPA), seeks to optimize the contribution of airport assets to investment, employment and the growth of the Salvadoran economy, making the Cargo Terminal the main logistics operations center in Central America, and to the airport in the main aeronautical operations center in Latin America.
The act of the official reception and public opening of the technical and economic offers was in charge of the Commission for the Evaluation of Offers made up of CEPA, the Ministry of Finance and the Promotion Agency of Exports and Investments of El Salvador (PROESA), governing body of the APP in El Salvador.
“As president of PROESA, I am satisfied to be complying with the entire process of evaluation, structuring and promotion of the first project of public-private partnerships in the history of El Salvador, since APPs are an investment model that complies with the highest standards of transparency, which is attached to President Nayib Bukele’s emphatic mandate to fight corruption. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic in which we live, at PROESA we have been studying and structuring several APP projects, which will substantially improve the infrastructure of our country and generate thousands of job opportunities, “said the head of the autonomous, Salvador Gómez Góchez.
The bidding rules for this APP were published in September of last year. Subsequently, CEPA and PROESA, with the support of FOMILENIO II, carried out a promotional tour or road show in the United States, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Peru and Chile, where they held meetings with companies that had expressed interest in the project in the market survey stage. The process included a period for the 33 companies that purchased the bidding rules to submit inquiries and requests for clarifications.
The first phase of the project consists of an investment of $ 13 million, which includes the improvement and rehabilitation of the existing cargo terminal. In this way, the cargo handling capacity will increase from 26,600 tons per year T / a to 52,000 T / a.
The second phase will have an additional term of 20 years, with an investment of $ 44 million for the design, financing and construction of new infrastructure, bringing the terminal’s capacity to move cargo up to 73,000 T / y. Both phases include maintenance and operation for the duration of the contract, by the private operator.
This project will increase the amount of merchandise managed in the Cargo Terminal, both in exports and imports in two phases, the objective of which is to triple the capacity for cargo movement and job creation.
PROESA, by mandate of law, has the power to evaluate, select, structure, promote and award projects under the modality of public-private partnerships. By virtue of the request made by CEPA, the required studies were carried out to evaluate the relevance of the project with the support of Fomilenio II. Based on these pre-investment studies, PROESA carried out the analyzes established in art. 32 of the APP Law, concluding that the project has a business model that economically strengthens El Salvador.
Subsequently, with the support of Fomilenio II, an international consulting firm was hired to join CEPA and PROESA in structuring the project and refining the business model that would be attractive to banks and their international promotion.
FOMILENIO II provides technical support to implement APPs as a mechanism to attract investment, optimize the management of state assets, and alleviate public finances. In this sense, FOMILENIO II supports with financing of pre-feasibility and feasibility studies to determine the profitability of APPs compared to traditional public financing and the construction of capacities for the development of at least two PPPs in the country, which will be developed and tendered within the period of the agreement.
Currently, FOMILENIO II is supporting the Government of El Salvador in four projects that together would exceed an estimated investment of more than $ 150 million.
The bid reception activity was attended by the Secretary of Commerce and Investment, Miguel Kattán; the president of CEPA, Federico Anliker, the president of PROESA, Salvador Gómez Góchez, and the executive director of FOMILENIO II, William Pleites.
EN 
ES