Currently some 10 IIRSA projects, including trans-border projects, are slated for implementation in Uruguay. Together these projects require an estimated investment of $8.8 billion. All of them fall within the MERCOSUR-Chile integration hub. The majority of projects correspond to the multi-modal transportation sector (with a focus on railways, roads, and bridges).
Despite this relatively small portfolio, Uruguay has been among the most ardent supporters of IIRSA, joining with Brazil in late 2004 to support Peru’s proposal that a Regional Infrastructure Authority be formed, for example. The Vásquez Administration is particularly interested in the rehabilitation of a railway from Montevideo to Rivera (which is part of cluster #2 in the MERCOSUR-Chile hub), in order to facilitate the extraction of timber from the Uruguay-Brazil border area. However, detractors point out that Uruguay does not have contracting companies of the size needed to win bids for the proposed works, and that the amount of additional foreign debt the country will take on by participating in IIRSA is too great in relation to the expected return from the projects like the Montevideo-Rivera railway.