TORONTO, Feb. 8, 2012 /CNW/ - Export Development Canada (EDC) and IFC, a
member of the World Bank Group, today signed agreements to expand their
partnership to support Canadian companies' investments in emerging
markets.
The agreements will focus on leveraging each other's strengths and
capabilities in emerging market projects and transactions, in addition
to enhanced partnering in the infrastructure and clean technology, or
cleantech, sectors.
Lars Thunell, IFC Executive Vice President and CEO, said: "IFC and EDC
have a distinguished history of working together to support private
sector development in emerging markets. Today, we are signing
agreements that will make it easier and more effective for us to
collaborate to help the private sector in Asia, the Middle East and
North Africa address critical development challenges such as climate
change, access to water, and healthcare."
"Having a stable and experienced partner to help develop emerging market
opportunities while many others are pulling back from these notionally
riskier regions presents a great fit with the diversifying interests of
Canadian exporters and investors," said Stephen Poloz, President and
CEO, EDC.
"The agreement is really about taking the natural complementarity
between EDC and IFC to the operational level. In today's credit
constrained environment, our ability to maximize our capacity through
partnership enriches the opportunities of our customers, and helps grow
trade and investment with the world's emerging market economies."
The agreements include a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and a Master
Cooperation Agreement (MCA). The MOU outlines the areas of partnership
and the MCA streamlines the lending process to improve efficiency and
turnaround time.
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development
institution focused exclusively on the private sector. We help
developing countries achieve sustainable growth by financing
investment, providing advisory services to businesses and governments,
and mobilizing capital in the international financial markets. In
fiscal 2011, amid economic uncertainty across the globe, we helped our
clients create jobs, strengthen environmental performance, and
contribute to their local communities—all while driving our investments
to an all-time high of nearly $19 billion. For more information, visit www.ifc.org.
About EDC
EDC is Canada's export credit agency, offering innovative commercial
solutions to help Canadian exporters and investors expand their
international business. EDC's knowledge and partnerships are used by
more than 8,200 Canadian companies and their global customers in up to
200 markets worldwide each year. EDC is financially self-sustaining and
a recognized leader in financial reporting and economic analysis.
