MIGA’s Executive Vice President to Visit Iraq, Jordan, and the West Bank and Gaza

MIGA’s Executive Vice President to Visit Iraq, Jordan, and the West Bank and Gaza
Trip to Encourage Private Sector Investment to Boost Regional Growth and Jobs

View the press release in Arabic

Washington, November 5, 2012 – Izumi Kobayashi, Executive Vice President of the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA)—the political risk insurance arm of the World Bank Group—will visit Iraq, Jordan, and the West Bank and Gaza in early November 2012. During her visit, she will discuss opportunities for private sector investment and raise awareness of how MIGA’s investment guarantees can help investors mitigate perceived political risks. She will meet with government officials, national investment authorities, banks, and private sector representatives.

While in the West Bank and Gaza, she plans to sign contracts for three projects being supported by the MIGA-administered West Bank and Gaza Investment Guarantee Trust Fund. The fund, sponsored by the government of Japan and the Palestinian Authority, aims at encouraging investment in the West Bank and Gaza by providing political risk insurance to both local and foreign investors. It is designed to facilitate small and medium-size investments, with a special emphasis on projects with high employment-generating capacity.

Kobayashi’s visit underscores MIGA’s commitment to supporting sustainable foreign direct investment (FDI) that will generate jobs and opportunities in the Middle East and North Africa. In 2011, MIGA announced it had mobilized $1 billion in insurance capacity precisely to retain and encourage FDI into the region. During fiscal year 2012, MIGA issued $442 million in investment guarantees supporting projects there.

"I am looking forward to seeing the results of the projects we have supported over the last year,” says Kobayashi. “And I’m eager to explore how we can do more to support a diverse array of investments that will generate the jobs and opportunities that are so urgently needed in the region."

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MULTILATERAL INVESTMENT GUARANTEE AGENCY
A Member of the World Bank Group
1818 H Street, NW, Washington, DC 20433

MIGA Contact:
Mallory Saleson, MIGA
Tel: +1 202 473-0844
E-mail: msaleson@worldbank.org

Rebecca Post, MIGA
Tel: +1 202-473-1964
E-mail: rpost@worldbank.org

Cara Santos Pianesi
Tel: +1.202.458.2097
E-mail: csantospianesi@worldbank.org