The Six Degrees Annual Latin American Leadership Forum has announced the complete list of the Top 50 strategic infrastructure projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Leadership Forum will be held in Miami, from April 1-3, 2008. The projects were selected through a rigorous six-month process, and engaged governments and private developers throughout the region.
According to Yukiko Omura, the Executive Vice President of the World Bank's critical Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), "The Leadership Forum is the key projects-focused conference in the Americas," and she went on to say that "we make extremely valuable project contacts at the Forum each year — this is our third straight year of sponsorship, and it is one of the most effective marketing spends of our year!"
Project presentations are made by high-level decision-makes, including at least three ministers. Sectors (with values, and key projects) are the following:
1. Digital Infrastructure $4.2B – Featuring a major tariff clearinghouse project integrating all of the urban mass transit systems in the city of São Paulo, Brasil;
2. Electricity Generation $13.7B – Featuring a 535 MW combined cycle power project and 50 MW solar farm in Sonora, Mexico, sponsored by CFE;
3. Highway $2.8 B – Featuring a $1 billion highway concession in Santiago, Chile, and a Costa Rican highway concession presented by the minister of public works;
4. New Infrastructure $1.0B – Featuring the $500 Million Azua Bio-diesel project in the Dominican Republic, and a series of wind farm projects in Mexico;
5. Oil and Gas $15B+ – Featuring the $5 billion Camperj Petrochemical Complex in Rio de Janeiro, and other strategic projects from Petrobras, Pemex and Petrojam;
6. Ports and Logistics $3.2B – Featuring the Buenaventura port projects, including major highway and inter-modal logistics in Colombia;
7. Strategic $4 B – Featuring the Petrobras-sponsored Cuiba to Paranagua ethanol logistics network, in Brazil;
8. Tourism $5.5 B – Including the $2.5 billion Hatulco Bay Project in Mexico, presented by the Director General of Fonatur;
9. UMT $4.2 B – Featuring the long-awaited bullet train between Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, in preparation for the 2012 World Cup; and
10. Water and Wastewater Treatment $4.3 B – Featuring a series of major wastewater treatment project in the Valley of Mexico
"This the first time that the project roster has exceeded $50 billion," according to Norman F. Anderson, CEO of CG/LA Infrastructure, "we attribute these large numbers to the fact that Latin America, in the fifth year of a commodities-lead expansion, is re-gaining tis confidence."
