The Infra Dig podcast launches into the new year with the first episode serving as a reminder that “The Miami Conference” – IJ LatAm 2025 – is just around the corner and it’s shaping up to be the best one to date.

Running from 10-12 March at 1 Hotel South Beach, Miami, IJ LatAm 2025 has been hosted by IJGlobal in Florida for more than 2 decades and is the title’s flagship event, this year attracting around 700 delegates from across the region.

In preparation for this landmark conference, IJGlobal has hosted a number of podcasts focused on the region and this latest one sees Nieves Polanco – project finance legal counsel at Sacyr – join IJ editorial director Angus Leslie Melville to talk about the market.

In a podcast that runs for a little more than 25 minutes, Nieves takes the listener through many matters impacting the LatAm infra sector

This latest episode can be accessed on Spotify (embedded above) as well as through Apple Podcasts and on the Amazon service. It is also hosted across a slew of other platforms, open access on all of them.

Nieves – a Spanish lawyer operating out of Madrid – is responsible for project finance at Sacyr from a legal perspective for an organisation that has a significant presence across Latin America.

“From a sponsor perspective,” says Nieves, “I would say the main challenges of structuring project finance deals in Latin American countries can include – first of all – a stable regulatory framework.

“Second, I would say that public and private sector collaboration – mutual collaboration – a long-term approach and, as a fourth, thinking-out-of-the-box financing structures.”

Of these, Nieves singles out close collaboration between the public and private sectors as being of primary importance when structuring major infrastructure projects.

And Nieves speaks from deep experience given that Sacyr has 4 operational 4G toll roads in Colombia and is looking at new opportunities across the region – beyond the obvious countries.

“We are looking at new projects in other countries like Chile where we are very strong,” says Nieves. “That partnership has been created and has had quite a long life, but there are other countries where that partnership is still being born.”

To hear all about the LatAm market and Sacyr’s role in delivering infrastructure, tune into this latest episode.