IFC Commits $1.44b for the Middle East

ABU DHABI — The International Finance Corporation (IFC)’s Investment commitments reached $1.44 billion for 50 projects in 12 countries of Middle East in financial year 2008, a senior official said on Wednesday.

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Published: Fri 12 Dec 2008, 12:04 AM

Last updated: Sun 5 Apr 2015, 11:21 AM

IFC also mobilised an additional $819 million through syndications and structured and securitised products.

“IFC focuses on providing long-term finance to the private sector that benefit the underserved communities and priorities given to access to finance, investments in infrastructure; opportunities in IDA, and resource-poor middle-income countries,” said Gulrez Hoda IFC’s associate director for MENA region, in annual report for 2008.

Speaking about IFC projects, he said that 32 per cent of new investments are international development assistance projects, while only 14 per cent are in conflict-affected countries.

“Our portfolio is spread across the region, with the biggest concentration in the financial and infrastructure sectors. In advisory services, we have been active in 14 of the region’s 19 countries in FY08; we approved 32 new projects, 34 per cent of them in IDA and 13 percent in conflict-affected countries”, he said.

Total expenditure for advisory services in FY08 was over $22 million: 47 per cent were related to access to finance and corporate advice; 26 per cent focused on the business enabling environment; and 25 per cent on infrastructure, including public-private partnerships.

IFC’s activities have generated tangible results, increasing employment, mobilising additional financing, and assisting smaller businesses. “In 2007, our clients had 852,000 loans outstanding to MSMEs and generated $787 million in government revenues. Our portfolio fared best in infrastructure, funds, and telecommunications, while operations in some small non-bank financial institutions and particularly small manufacturing businesses showed weak results,” he said.

The performance of IFC’s two largest exposure countries, Pakistan and Egypt has generally been above average. To date, advisory services have facilitated an estimated $1.5 billion in infrastructure investment and helped generate government revenues of nearly $1.3 billion through public-private partnerships and privatisations.

Using a variety of programmes, he said that IFC has helped underserved groups to access financing of about $3.8 billion, which includes 1.6 million microfinance loans.

“Advisory services were instrumental in reducing the time to start a business by half in two countries; across the region we have helped reform or amend 28 laws, regulations, and codes and 109 procedures and policies,” Hoda said.

· haseebhaider@khaleejtimes.com


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