Devp countries register $9.5 bn investments in FY06

Singapore, Sep 18: Investments in high-risk and low-income countries went up 20 per cent during FY06 with a record 9.5 billion dollars in investment commitments and resource mobilisation for private sector projects in developing countries.

According to the International Finance Corporation (IFC) it made tremendous progress this year targeting financing and technical assistance in areas where IFC's help was needed the most.

''IFC's investments in Africa and West Asia increased 80 per cent in fiscal year 2006. Our investments in infrastructure and private sector health and education projects were up more than 50 per cent,'' IFC Executive Vice President Lars Thunell said today.

In FY06, IFC earned a net income of 1.3 billion dollars compared to 2.0 billion dollars in FY05. Operating income stood at 1.4 billion dollars in FY06 as compared to 2.0 billion dollars for the previous fiscal year.

Mr Thunell noted that, ''Our record investment commitments reflect our success in delivering on IFC's long-term growth strategy. While we are increasing our activities, we are also improving measurement of our development effectiveness and of the economic, environmental and social sustainability of our projects.'' IFC has been consistently profitable since its inception in 1956, demonstrating the profit potential of private sector investments in developing countries.

The Corporation's investments in telecommunications have helped 62 million people gain access to phone service since 1996. Oil, gas and mining companies, IFC has invested in, have created 50,000 jobs and contributed 4.4 billion dollars to government revenues in developing nations last year.

Of the 6.7 billion dollars in commitments, IFC signed for its own account in FY06, 5.0 billion dollars were in loans, 1.1 million dollars were for equity and 611 million dollars were in guarantees and risk management products.

IFC's committed portfolio for its own account grew to 21.6 billion dollars during the year, an increase of nearly 12 per cent.

Expenditures for IFC's technical assistance and advisory activities, which are delivered through a network of donor-funded facilities and programmes, were about 134 million dollars for FY06, a 23 per cent increase.

During FY06, IFC adopted new environmental and social standards.

These standards have been adopted by 42 international financial institutions as the Equator Principles II.

UNI