River Plate Basin Treaty
The River Plate Basin Treaty was subscribed at the 1st Extraordinary Ministerial Meeting held in Brasilia on April 22 - 23, 1969. The Treaty entered into force on August 14, 1970, as a result of a joint effort to promote the economic development of the subregion. The member countries - Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay - developed operational agreements and legal instruments in order to identify fields of common interest in the region.
Constitutive Agreement
The Governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay held the 4th Ministerial Meeting in Asuncion on June 6, 1971, in order to “create an organization with international legal status to be called: Financial Fund for the Development of the Countries of the River Plate Basin - FONPLATA”.
During the 6th Meeting held in Buenos Aires on June 12, 1974, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs subscribed FONPLATA Articles of Agreement, of an international legal status and for an unlimited duration.
FONPLATA started its operations in 1977 when the Headquarters Agreement with the Government of Bolivia entered into force. The first headquarters were located in Sucre, Bolivia’s capital city.
In December 2002, the Republic of Bolivia was ratified as FONPLATA’s host country by Resolution No. 56 of the 7th Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the countries of the River Plate Basin, and by Decision of the Intergovernmental Coordinating Committee of the River Plate Basin Countries at the 529th Ordinary Session.
In 2010, the Governors of FONPLATA adopted to provide the organism with a new institutional management model and create the position of Executive President.
In 2012, when the first Executive President took office, the new management developed a structured agenda together with FONPLATA governing bodies to relaunch the Bank based on short-term management goals.
As a result, the Board of Governors approved a long-term plan, the Institutional Strategic Plan (PEI, for its acronym in Spanish) and two capital increases.
In December 2014, the Fund received a US$ 75 million credit from CAF, the Latin-American Development Bank. These funds enabled the institutional strengthening of FONPLATA, the growth of the credit portfolio, and the implementation of infrastructure projects and social and productive development projects in its member countries.
Two capital increases were approved by the Board of Governors, one of US$ 1.15 billion on August 1, 2013, and with the second increase on January 28, 2016, the capital amounts to more than US$ 3 billion.
In 2016, we obtained for the first time an international credit rating, registering A2 for Moody’s and A- for Standard & Poor’s. These ratings have remained stable in 2017 and 2018 allowing us to access and grant financing under advantageous conditions. In 2019 Standard & Poor’s in a February 21 report ratified the FONPLATA rating of A- for the long term and A-2 for the short term by changing the outlook from stable to positive.
In November 2018, it was consolidated and began to be called as FONPLATA - Development Bank, with the modification of the Constitutive Agreement, to establish strategic alliances with new member countries, as well as with other agencies and multilateral credit banks that share their institutional values and development goals for the region.