Above: the signing of the Korea-IDB agreement (IDB Photo/Arlette Pedraglio)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The Export-Import Bank of Korea has joined the Inter-American Development Bank’s Trade Finance Facilitation Programme.

Under the TFFP, the IDB offers trade finance co-lending facilities and guarantees to support participating banks to further their trade-finance business and promote economic growth.

“We look forward to working together with the Export-Import Bank of Korea and to continue to incorporate additional Korean banks in the near future,” said Daniela Carrera-Marquis, Chief of the Financial Markets Division at the IDB’s Structured and Corporate Finance Department. “The potential to further expand the volume of business between Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean is significant, and the IDB is well-positioned to play a leadership role and facilitate such market growth.”

“The Export-Import Bank of Korea is pleased to partner with the IDB and join the growing TFFP network,” said Woo-taek Suh, director general of the Interbank Export Finance Department at Korea’s Export-Import Bank.

It it the latest move of a strong Asian presence at the IDB’s ongoing annual meeting in Montevideo.

The deal follows the creation of a joint investment platform between the IDB and China’s Export-Import Bank that could mobilize $1 billion for the region.

Yesterday, Korea and the IDB established a public capacity building fund for economic development, and on the same day the IDB and the Asian Development Bank pledged to forge a closer relationship.