The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, and the president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Ilan Goldfajn, signed this Wednesday in Miami a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a framework for cooperation in transport and infrastructure in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The agreement will have an initial validity of three years and will allow exploring collaboration opportunities in different areas of transport, as well as identifying investment strategies with social and economic returns in the Latin American and Caribbean countries linked to the IDB.
The memorandum covers the entirety of transport infrastructure, from road and rail networks to airports, air navigation, maritime transport, and port facilities.
Among the objectives outlined in the document is the development of initiatives aimed at improving public policies, regulatory frameworks, and institutional capacities related to transport systems in the countries of the region.
The agreement also provides for collaboration on projects related to resilient, secure, digitized, and sustainable infrastructures, through the exchange of technical and institutional experience between the parties.
During the signing, Óscar Puente referred to the experience of the organizations and public companies integrated within the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility. Among them, he mentioned Adif, Renfe, Ineco, Puertos del Estado, Aena, and Enaire, entities that carry out their activities in the railway, airport, port, and air navigation sectors.
The inclusion of maritime transport and ports in the scope of the memorandum opens the possibility of studying cooperation projects related to port infrastructure and logistics systems in the IDB member countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, within the lines of work that are concretized during the validity of the agreement.
The signing took place during the participation of the Spanish minister at the LAC Transport Forum 2026, held in Miami, where Puente also held a meeting with Ilan Goldfajn.
At that meeting, the minister thanked Spain's participation in the forum and referred to the existing relationship between the country and the Inter-American Development Bank. Puente also mentioned the presence of the IDB's European office in Madrid as one of the elements of that cooperation.
The Inter-American Development Bank is a multilateral financial institution dedicated to development projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. The entity provides financing, technical assistance, and knowledge to national governments, subnational administrations, and other public entities in the region.
The IDB currently has 48 member countries. Of these, 26 are borrowing countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and another 22 are non-borrowing members from Europe, North America, and Asia. Spain is part of this second group.
Óscar Puente's agenda in Miami has also included bilateral meetings with representatives of various Latin American governments present at the LAC Transport Forum.
The minister has met with Viviane Esse, national secretary of Road Transport in the Ministry of Transport of Brazil; Suleyka Aymerich Pérez, Administrative and Strategic Management Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport of Costa Rica; and Iván De Ycaza Delgado, Deputy Minister of Public Works of Panama.
The round of meetings has also included meetings with Gabriela María Carrasco Carrasco, Deputy Minister of Transport of Peru; María Fernanda Santa Palacios, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure of the Ministry of Transport of Colombia; Roberto Xavier Luque Nuques, Minister of Infrastructure and Transport of Ecuador; and Aníbal Alberto Ehrler Martínez, Minister of Infrastructure and Transport of Honduras.
During these meetings, Puente conveyed to the representatives of these countries the invitation to participate in the Ibero-American Conference of Ministers of Transport and Infrastructure.
The event will take place on October 8 and 9 in Valladolid and is part of the XXX Ibero-American Summit that Spain is hosting this year.
The memorandum signed with the IDB thus establishes a three-year framework to study possible joint actions in transport and infrastructure and facilitate technical exchange between Spain, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Latin American and Caribbean countries integrated into the institution.
