Discurso del Ministro Consejero

Remarks by Deputy Chief of Mission Peter M. Brennan

Signing Ceremony for the
U.S. Trade and Development Agency’s Grant to
Empresa Administradora de Aeropuertos Internacionales (EAAI)

Managua International Airport, August 29, 2006

(Embassy translation - originally delivered in Spanish)

It is my honor to witness with the Vice President Alfredo Gomez yet another example of the extremely close and profound partnership that our two countries have forged over the past several years.

As one of the first countries to ratify CAFTA-DR, Nicaragua now enjoys wide access to the United States’ eleven trillion dollar economy, the world’s largest and most dynamic.

Through CAFTA-DR, Nicaragua also benefits from U.S. marketing and supply links with other large and growing economies, such as the European Union and China.

In this context, it is hardly surprising to see unprecedented demand for Nicaraguan products and services.

Simply put, more trade means more jobs, such as construction jobs to build a new air cargo terminal on this site, factory and farm jobs to fill the boxes that will be exported through this new air cargo terminal, and airport jobs to manage additional cargo and aircraft to haul these boxes.  The list of beneficiaries grows as new workers with better jobs increase their consumption of other Nicaraguan goods and services.

Today, CAFTA-DR is the cement that binds our two economies together.

But Nicaragua’s partnership with the United States goes even deeper.

Through official and voluntary assistance programs, Americans are working with Nicaraguans to help them take advantage of the economic opportunities coming their way.

Through Nicaragua’s compact with the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the United States is providing funds to build roads, strengthen property rights, and create an engine of economic growth in an important agricultural region of the country.

Through its alliance with the Food Industry and Programs for Development, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is contributing to the growing potential of Nicaraguan producers to sell their products, especially fruit and vegetable products, in regional and international markets.  Nicaraguan producers are already benefiting from CAFTA-DR.

These and many other efforts foster trade, investment, and economic growth.  We want to create an upward spiral of economic activity that raises the well being of all Nicaraguans.

As President Bolaños explained to members of the American Chamber of Commerce two weeks ago, “The only cure for poverty is economic growth.”

This grant for $324,000 from the United States Trade and Development Agency is designed to enhance the capability of the Empresa Administradora de Aeropuertos Internacionales to respond to the growing demand from the United States and other countries for Nicaraguan products and services.

It is my honor to witness the event.  As is CAFTA-DR, it is the product of a very deep, close, and I hope very long partnership.

Thank you.