"I would first like to congratulate Honduras on holding the first democratic elections for some time, and on the country’s newly legitimated President who has an extremely ambitious agenda to move the country forward," said Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Climate change had been an important point on the agenda of their talks, she reported, and added that they had discussed the objectives of the Paris conference, bilateral support and the pledge made by the industrialised states in Copenhagen to provide the developing countries with a sum of 100 billion dollars a year as of 2020 for climate activities.

Assistance in the education sector

Angela Merkel also pointed out that Honduras faces the problems of corruption and drug-related crime. The Chancellor welcomed the initiatives launched by the Honduran government to improve the security situation and fully embrace the rule of law.

Finally, she stressed that Germany intends to support the education sector through development cooperation.

Development cooperation focuses on two priority areas: education and environmental policy including the sustainable management of natural resources and climate change mitigation. At the most recent government negotiations in September 2014, Germany pledged Honduras 31 million euros for financial and technical cooperation measures. The portfolio of ongoing projects and programmes is worth about 140 million euros.

Support at various levels

Since 1961 Germany has provided the Central American state with a total of some 440 million euros to finance projects and programmes. To this must be added the German share of EU development activities, which is roughly 20 per cent of the total, and Germany’s contribution to the activities of the international financial institutions including the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, and of course the programmes of the United Nations.

The European Union programme (2014 - 2020) has a total funding volume of 235 million euros and targets the fields of food security, employment and the promotion of the rule of law. The Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank are the largest multilateral donors in Honduras, accounting for some 100 million euros and 50 million euros a year respectively.