The European American Chamber of Commerce New York (EACCNY) together with the European Investment Bank’s global financing arm, EIB Global, launched the Transatlantic Resilient Infrastructure Alliance [TRIA], a joint initiative to support investments for resilient infrastructure in low- and middle-income countries in Africa, LatAm and Eastern Europe.

Financing sustainable infrastructure projects presents three main challenges: project readiness, suitable public and private financing mechanisms (including the availability of adequate funding), and effective implementation and oversight.

The infrastructure value chain includes a broad range of actors – public authorities, corporate developers, suppliers and service providers, and financiers. We bring together key players in infrastructure development & financing and build a transatlantic platform with relevant organizations from the US and Europe. Current – and future – participants can include banks, institutional investors (such as pension funds, insurers, asset managers), and industry, all of whom join in an effort to develop sustainable financing vehicles, identify and advance priority projects, and collaborate on the promotion of resilient infrastructure to build a sustainable future.

This initiative is a hands-on, long-term project to develop concrete proposals in collaboration with the organizations that are part of the alliance.

The purpose of the Alliance is to serve as a platform for identifying concrete solutions to mobilize the private sector in infrastructure financing across low- and middle-income countries in Africa, LatAm and Eastern Europe.

In the context of limited public resources, cooperation between the public and private sectors is essential to bridge the financing gap and enhance the speed and efficiency of global infrastructure investments. The Alliance is addressing the critical shortfall between projected infrastructure investment needs and expected spending by 2030—currently estimated at approximately $15 trillion.

Amid widening global divides, a reinforced partnership between European and U.S. stakeholders presents a significant opportunity to promote economic growth through sustainable investment. Such a partnership offers substantial benefits: increasing trade that spurs innovation; promoting access to leading technologies and expertise; and leveraging financial markets to unlock vast global investment potential.

The TRIA aims to add a new dimension to this productive partnership by convening CEOs and senior executives from leading companies and institutional investors. Its objective is to build peer relationships and identify collaborative investment opportunities in sustainable infrastructure and its value chain across low- and middle-income countries worldwide.

Accordingly, TRIA is also expected to contribute meaningfully to the EU’s Global Gateway investment agenda, as well as to the broader G7 Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII).

With TRIA, our goal is to create a platform of enthusiastic, ready-to-engage stakeholders who believe in transatlantic collaboration and recognize the need to develop and deploy pioneering financing methodologies and innovations from both sides of the Atlantic to effectively support sustainable global development and growth.

TRIA builds on the EIB’s capacity to finance infrastructure programs and integrates the perspectives of European and U.S. businesses committed to advancing global sustainability objectives. It facilitates effective and coordinated collaboration on projects between European and American stakeholders.

Through a series of high-level discussions, TRIA participants exchange insights on financing gaps, deepen their understanding of the challenges involved in investing and operating within a rapidly evolving global environment, and contribute to shaping the EIB Global offering – both through innovative financing modalities and targeted feedback on EIB activities.

Participants may also choose to share their expertise directly with EIB clients by engaging in mentoring and public initiatives, such as pro-bono participation in the EIB’s flagship Banking Academies.

These discussions offer valuable insight into the financing requirements and modalities of EIB Global, as well as those of other public sector participants – EXIM and DFC – enabling stakeholders to more effectively prepare proposals for both public and private sector financing.

Key outcomes would include:

Projects of interest cover all sectors of the EU’s Global Gateway strategy (digital, climate and energy, transport, health, and education) as well as the U.S.’s Economic Corridor Approach (Transportation, Energy Supply Chains, Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Agricultural Systems, Health & Health Security)

Examples could include: digital infrastructure incl. 5G/6G connectivity, Open Radio Access Network technology, reliable Internet Access, energy supply chain, batteries, renewable energy generation and transmission networks, buildings efficiency, decarbonization, agriculture/food security, climate adaptation projects, rail, electric vehicles technology, water and sanitation, accessible patient-centered health services, and essential medical product manufacturing and more.

The Transatlantic Resilient Infrastructure Alliance was conceived during the IMF/Worldbank meetings in July 2024 and formally launched in October 2024 in New York.

It started operating in early Q4 2024 with a meeting in New York to endorse objectives, action points and a detailed timeline of deliverables with a 3-year horizon.

The principals of the Alliance members come together in person three times a year, to identify and discuss advancement of concrete collaboration opportunities. In-between those meetings the Secretariat conducts bilateral and multilateral coordination calls to ensure operational alignment and progress on the achievement of the set goals. Team members of EACCNY, EIB and EXIM coordinate on the process of the initiative on shorter intervals.

To guarantee operational effectiveness the Transatlantic Resilient Infrastructure Alliance is limited to 25 members. In addition to the partners above, we are in final discussion with other organizations.

If you wish to be included in the selection or your organization would like to learn more about the work TRIA is doing, please reach out to the Executive Director Yvonne Bendinger-Rothschild at ybr[at]eaccny.com. We look forward to hearing from you.