At the virtual meeting of SICA Presidents, held on Thursday, March 12, among the various actions, CABEI was asked to expand the emergency fund to deal with the coronavirus.
Central America, March 17, 2020. The region is advancing in the United Central America Contingency Plan against the coronavirus. At the request of the Presidents who are members of the Central American Integration System (SICA), CABEI expanded the Emergency Fund to US $ 1 million per country, earmarked for the health emergency in the region due to the pandemic.
This result stems from the political dialogue that was generated in the extraordinary virtual meeting held in March, in which the presidents of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, in his capacity as Pro Tempore President of SICA; from Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado; from Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei; from Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega; ; from Panama, Laurentino Cortizo; from the Dominican Republic, Danilo Medina; as well as the Deputy Prime Minister of Belize, Hugo Patt, and Vinicio Cerezo, Secretary General of SICA, requested the regional body to increase the Emergency fund that was USD $ 250,000.00 per country, to contribute to the attention of immediate needs.
The Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) committed to the region has increased the Emergency Fund available to all SICA member countries to $ 8 million. Therefore, each country that requests it will have immediate access to $ 1 million.
According to information published by the regional body, the non-reimbursable resources of the cooperation may be used to purchase medicines and medical supplies to attend to any health emergency that occurs in the countries; purchase of food, drinking water and other goods for primary use required by affected people; financing of campaigns and actions related to emergency care and the affected population; and to attend to the plans of preparation and response to the disease; among other purposes.
The economic and financial measure to face the crisis resulting from COVID-19 is contemplated in the Declaration adopted by the heads of state and government of SICA, on March 12.