MIGA and Sinosure Co-Host Seminar for Investors

World Bank's MIGA and Sinosure Co-Host Seminar for Investors

BEIJING, August 27, 2002 — The World Bank's Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) met today with some 150 members of the Chinese and international business communities for a day-long seminar in Beijing. The event, co-hosted by the China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation (Sinosure), provided a platform for MIGA to discuss ways in which the two agencies' political risk insurance programs can help investors meet their business goals.
"China has undergone a remarkable internal economic transformation over the past 15 years, with Chinese investors moving more and more into overseas markets," said MIGA's Executive Vice President, Motomichi Ikawa, at the seminar. "But investing abroad comes with risks, both commercial and noncommercial. MIGA and Sinosure can play an important role in mitigating noncommercial risks, such as war and civil disturbance, and those relating to host government actions that result in currency inconvertibility, expropriation, and breach of contract."

MIGA's services are also beneficial to China itself, where the agency has supported millions of dollars worth of foreign direct investment. Since China joined MIGA in 1991, the agency has issued $256 million in coverage for projects in the manufacturing, agribusiness, infrastructure, and financial services sectors.

MIGA's portfolio in Asia currently stands at $534 million for 72 contracts of guarantee, or 10 percent of the outstanding portfolio. These guarantees have facilitated an estimated $8 billion in additional foreign direct investment. China accounts for 16 percent of MIGA's outstanding Asian portfolio.

In addition to MIGA's presentation, today's seminar featured talks by the State Development Planning Commission, the Ministry of Finance, Sinosure , and the China National Chemical Engineering (Group) Corp. Topics centered on the status of overseas investment in China, the country's strategy for encouraging domestic companies to expand abroad, and how Chinese enterprises can use Sinosure and MIGA's investment insurance to make the most of overseas markets.

MIGA and Sinosure signed a memorandum of understanding nearly two years ago to work together to facilitate Chinese investments into other emerging economies. The seminar is a concrete result of the cooperation between the two organizations. "I hope it will be only one of many future efforts to work together as we jointly help Chinese companies compete in the global marketplace," said Ikawa.

For information

Gang Wang, gwang@ifc.org, t. 8610-6554-4191 (in China)

Angela Gentile, agentile@worldbank.org,
t. 202.473.3509 (in USA)

Sun Xiaoyan (Sinosure), sunxy@sinosure.com.cn,
t. 8610-8838-9766 (in China)