January 31, 2013 A report earlier this month from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) offered some staggering measures of worldwide unemployment. IFC said there are currently 200 million people unemployed around the world – a number roughly equivalent to the population of Brazil — and that the developing world will need to create some 600 million new jobs by the year 2020, just Read more…
January 22, 2013
In 2012, OPIC committed a $3.5 million loan to Healthpoint Services Global India Ltd., an affiliate of the U.S. company Healthpoint Global Services Inc., to support the construction of small water treatment facilities to some 400 communities in India’s Punjab state that have limited access to safe drinking water. The project, which is expected to prevent waterborne diseases and other Read more…
January 11, 2013
A villager in a remote region of India picks up his daily supply of clean drinking water that has been purified by Healthpoint Services Global India Ltd. to prevent waterborne diseases. OPIC last year committed a $3.5 million loan to the company, which is an affiliate of the U.S.-based Healthpoint Global Services Inc., to support the construction of small water Read more…
December 20, 2012
One of the key components of effective development is effective conflict resolution. Unresolved conflicts with local communities can result in higher costs, delays or even abandonment of projects. Last month, OPIC Director of Accountability, Dr. Keith Kozloff sat on a panel on Independent Accountability at the Washington Chapter of the Society for International Development (SID) to discuss the ways accountability Read more…
October 29, 2012
OPIC’s focus on renewable resources supports projects in wind, solar, geothermal, hydropower, biomass and other sustainable sources of energy, which will reduce carbon emissions, improve access to electricity and support economic growth. In recent years, the share of OPIC’s portfolio devoted to renewable resources has grown dramatically. In 2009, OPIC’s finance and insurance commitments in renewables totaled $131 million. That Read more…
October 19, 2012
At the latest Expanding Horizons conference in Chicago, GWA Innovative Technologies’ Thomas Anokye (center) and John Martinson (right) meet with Alison Germak-Gatchev, OPIC’s director of business development, to discuss a proposal to redevelop a marketplace in Accra, Ghana. The Expanding Horizons conference, which drew 118 small business owners from 14 states, educated small U.S. businesses about the ways OPIC products Read more…
October 17, 2012
This week, OPIC announced that its commitments to renewable resources projects rose 41 percent in Fiscal Year 2012, which ended September 30, to set a new record of $1.55 billion. The news follows last year’s record setting pace, and as the graphic shows, marks a sharp and steady increase in OPIC’s support for projects in clean energy and sustainable agriculture Read more…
October 16, 2012
Tuesday, October 16 is World Food Day, which marks the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) 67 years ago, and calls attention each year to the persistent problem of world hunger. While FAO says that progress has been made and that there are 130 million fewer hungry people today than there were 20 years Read more…
October 02, 2012 By Elizabeth Littlefield Wade Rain is a small family-owned business in Tualtin, Oregon that distributes irrigation equipment – most of which is made in the United States. About ten years ago, the company saw an opportunity to expand into Mexico, where heavy farming and light rainfall have combined to deplete the water table. Wade Rain knew that the irrigation equipment Read more…
July 17, 2012
At a time that the U.S. economy is tied more closely than ever to the world economy and some of the strongest economic growth is occurring in developing countries, American businesses are underrepresented in many of these high-growth regions, OPIC President and CEO Elizabeth Littlefield said. Littlefield, who spoke on Tuesday, July 17 at the Women in Finance symposium at Read more…
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