The Santiago Strategic Development Council has approved the Yearly Operational Plan for 2014 in which the agreements reached with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) are some of the more outstanding points. These agreements will permit the city to be included among the 22 cities in Latin America where the Emerging Sustainable Cities Initiative (ESCI) can be applied. The Council also announced that the World Bank and the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development are working on the recompilation of a formal study of the city. The research will permit the city to ease the creation of new businesses. The Plan has three main areas: the improvement of public safety, climate change adaptation and cooperation in the area of HIV-AIDS.
The IDB-funded ESCI applies a multidisciplinary approach to dealing with the challenges faced by emerging cities in Latin America and the Caribbean. The program seeks to integrate environmental and fiscal sustainability, urban development and good governance, and also to promote the support of actions that will provide basic services and guarantee the protection of the environment, as well as adequate standards of living and employment levels. The current goal is for the Initiative to include 26 cities in Latin America and the Caribbean by 2015. In Brazil, the goal is to implement ESCI in four cities by 2014.