MIGA Teams Up With CABEI to Promote Investment in Developing Countries
MIGA Teams Up With CABEI to Promote Investment in Developing Countries
(Spanish)
ISTANBUL, October 4, 2009—The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), a member of the World Bank Group, and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) will cooperate to promote private sector investment into Central American countries through a joint Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The MoU was signed in Istanbul on the sidelines of the 2009 Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund.
The aim of the MoU is to establish a framework of cooperation between MIGA and CABEI in order to further promote private sector foreign direct investment in Central American countries by jointly providing non-commercial risk guarantees for projects in a variety of sectors, mostly through coinsurance arrangements. This initiative will enable the two institutions to share information and know-how, and work together on key projects, thereby increasing the benefit to both investors and host countries.
MIGA provides insurance against political risks for eligible investments made by investors from a MIGA member country into a developing member country. The types of investments the agency can cover include equity, shareholder loans, certain non shareholder loans, certain shareholder loan guarantees, management contracts, asset securitizations, capital market bond issues, and leasing, services, franchising and licensing agreements. Projects supported by MIGA create jobs, provide water, electricity, and other basic infrastructure, rebuild collapsed financial systems, generate tax revenues, transfer skills and technological know-how, and help countries tap natural resources in an environmentally sustainable way.
CABEI, the leading provider of financial solutions in Central America, has a mandate to develop guarantees for non-commercial risks, among other fi-nancial instruments. CABEI brings 50 years of experience fostering Central America’s economic development and plays a leadership role in the financing of poverty reduction and regional integration.
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MIGA was created in 1988 as a member of the World Bank Group to promote foreign direct investment into emerging economies to support economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve people’s lives. MIGA fulfills this mandate by offering political risk insurance (guarantees) to investors and lenders, covering risks including expro-priation, breach of contract, non-honoring of sovereign financial obligations, currency transfer restriction, and war and civil disturbance. MIGA works actively with in-vestors and host countries, helping to resolve disputes before they reach a claims sit-uation. The agency also offers technical assistance to its member countries and pro-vides free online investment information services. Since its inception, MIGA has supported 600 projects in 100 developing countries, totaling $21 billion in coverage. MIGA’s gross exposure currently stands at $7.3 billion. For more information, visit www.miga.org.
CABEI is Central America’s main multilateral bank and financial arm. CABEI was founded on 13 December 1960 by Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Its non-regional members include Mexico, the Republic of China (Taiwan), Argentina, Colombia and Spain. Subsequently, Panama and the Dominican Republic joined as non-founding regional members, and Belize also joined as a non-founding beneficiary country.
Current CABEI’s Ratings: Standard& Poor’s A-, Moody’s A2, Fitch Ratings A-, Japan Credit Rating (JRC) A+
For more information, visit www.bcie.org
Contacts
Mallory Saleson, MIGA
Phone: +1 202 473-0844
E-mail: msaleson@worldbank.org
Rebecca Post, MIGA
Phone: +1-202-
E-mail: rpost@worldbank.org
Ivonne Jimenez, CABEI
Phone: +504 240 2114
E-mail: Prensa_bcie@bcie.org
Javier Manzanares, CABEI
Phone: +504 240 2233
E-mail: jmanzanares@bcie.org
Abdel Karim, CABEI
Phone: +504 240 2159
E-mail: akarim@bcie.org