BISNIS Bulletin, March 2003
Finance Corner: The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency
by Alicja Pluta
The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), a member of the World Bank Group, aims to promote foreign direct investment (FDI) in developing nations in order to reduce poverty and improve the general welfare of their people. MIGA (www.miga.org), established in 1988, assists countries primarily in two ways: it offers political (non-commercial) risk insurance to investors it helps countries encourage and sustain FDI.
Investment Guarantee Services provide eligible foreign investments in emerging member countries with insurance against non-commercial or political risks. One example of such a risk is transfer restriction, or losses resulting from the inability of investors to convert local currency or obtain foreign exchange due to government restrictions or adverse regulations. Other risks that investors are protected against are expropriation, war, and civil disturbance (including terrorism). Investors must qualify under specific terms to receive insurance.
Investment Marketing Services provide investment promotion intermediaries in developing countries with the tools needed to inform and encourage potential foreign investment. MIGA designs and implements capacity-building projects to generate and maintain FDI. It also offers on-line services that provide free information on the business environment and investment opportunities in developing countries and economies in transition.
MIGA capacity-building assistance takes many forms, including training investment promotion intermediaries in marketing and management techniques and organizing regional and sector conferences to bring investors, governments, and investment promotion intermediaries together to create policies and projects that promote FDI.
Armenia www.gateway.am Russia www.russia-gateway.ru
Azerbaijan www.gateway.az Ukraine www.e-ukraine.org
Georgia www.gateway.ge Tajikistan www.tajik-gateway.org
Kyrgyzstan www.gateway.kg Uzbekistan www.uzbekgateway.uz
Kazakhstan www.kazakhstan-gateway.kz Moldova www.gate.md
MIGA information services help investors and their advisers as well as investment promotion intermediaries keep abreast of the latest information and research on foreign direct investment. The following four sites receive some 40,000 visitors each month:
Ø The Investment Promotion Network (www.ipanet.net) provides access to 13,000 investment information resources from 600 worldwide sources, catalogued by country, sector, and topic.
Ø PrivatizationLink (www.privatizationlink.com) is a privatization marketing service featuring detailed profiles of state-owned enterprises currently being divested in emerging economies, packaged along with key information on bidding procedures, governing legislation, and plans for future tenders.
Ø PrivatizationLink Russia (http://russia.privatizationlink.com) is an investment information service, providing on-line access to privatization and other direct investment opportunities in Russia.
Ø FDI Xchange (www.fdixchange.com) is a free email service that sends regular, custom alerts containing brief summaries of new investment opportunities, market research, and country analysis, with hyperlinks to the full text.
All Eurasian countries are members of MIGA, with Tajikistan joining most recently on December 13, 2002. MIGA has been involved in many projects in the region, including information dissemination services through the creation of comprehensive Web sites, including country development gateways, which provide a wide range of information on the country.
MIGA issued several investment guarantees in Eurasia in the past year, including
Russia: MIGA provided a $2.1-million guarantee to Swiss Sungrain S.A., covering its $2.3 million equity investment in OJSC Tatsinsky Elevator. This project involves the acquisition and modernization of an agricultural commodity storage facility in the Rostov region of Russia.
Kyrgyz Republic: Guarantees were extended to Italian Technology & Innovations S.r.l. and MCC S.p.A. for an investment in Manas Management Company. The project is the construction and operation of an air cargo complex and an air catering center at Manas International Airport in Bishkek.
Kazakhstan: MIGA provided $7.2 million in guarantees to Efes Breweries International B.V. of the Netherlands for investment in Efes Karaganda Brewery CJSC in Kazakhstan. This project involves the construction and operation of a new brewery near Almaty with an annual capacity of 50 million liters.
Alicja Pluta is an intern at BISNIS in Washington, D.C.
This report is provided courtesy of the Business Information Service for the Newly Independent States (BISNIS)