MEXICO CITY — The United States pledged $5.8 billion in aid and investment Tuesday for strengthening government and economic development in Central America, and another $4.8 billion in development aid for southern Mexico.
The aid aims to promote better security conditions and job opportunities as part of a regional plan to allow Central Americans and Mexicans to remain in their countries and not have to emigrate.
The plan was announced in a joint US-Mexican statement released by the State Department and read aloud by Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard in the Mexican capital.
‘‘In sum I think this is good news, very good news for Mexico,’’ Ebrard said.
Newly inaugurated President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador waxed poetic about the plan to provide jobs so people won’t have to emigrate.
‘‘I have a dream that I want to see become a reality . . . that nobody will want to go work in the United States anymore,’’ Lopez Obrador said at a morning news conference before the announcement.
The combination of public and private investment for the stay-at-home effort doesn’t require congressional approval, unlike Trump’s signature project to stem illegal immigration — a border wall.
Most of the overall $10.6 billion in aid will be allocated from existing aid programs. Around $4.5 billion of that sum comes from new loans, loan guarantees, and other private-sector support that could become available through the Overseas Private Investment Corp.
The announcement appeared to be largely a symbolic gesture of cooperation between the two governments after two tumultuous years in the bilateral relationship and several tense weeks during the arrival of several migrant caravans.
The Mexican government said it would contribute $25 billion to development in southern Mexico over five years, which López Obrador has suggested could serve as a source of employment to Central Americans who are granted work visas.
López Obrador ‘‘has to take advantage of this opportunity, this honeymoon with Trump and Mexico,’’ said Rafael Fernández de Castro, a former senior Mexican foreign affairs official and now director of the Center for US-Mexican Studies at the University of California San Diego.
For years, the United States has allocated development assistance to Central America in the hope of preventing migrants from traveling to the United States. In 2016, in the wake of a surge in unaccompanied children arriving at the border, the Obama administration announced $750 million in funding to Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, dubbed the Alliance for Prosperity.
Lopez Obrador’s administration has said it is also interested in agricultural, forestry, and tourism projects in southern Mexico, and the United States said it will contribute to those efforts.
Southern states like Chiapas and Oaxaca are home to many of Mexico’s poorest communities. Lopez Obrador, who took office Dec. 1, has sought to make development in that region a priority, including plans for a ‘‘Mayan train’’ stretching from touristy parts of the Yucatan Peninsula down to Chiapas.
It was unclear whether Mexico would give anything in return. A planned announcement about Mexico’s migration policy was postponed until Wednesday.
The United States has reportedly wanted Mexico to allow migrants seeking asylum in the United States to remain in Mexico while their applications are processed.
Material from The Washington Post was included in this report.