An Older, Wiser IFC

随着私营部门投资在全球扮演越来越重要的角色，现金充裕的国际金融公司（internationalfinance Corporation）是时候加大投资了。

当国际金融公司（IFC）是世界银行的私营部门，成立于1956年，它是履行一个小但重要的作用 - 促进发展中国家的可持续私人投资，以减少贫困和改善生命。五十年，世界是一个非常不同的地方。

The iron curtain has been flung wide open. Europe has come together to form the world's second-biggest trade block. Large countries that were once financial pariahs, like Russia, have embraced foreign investment that in turn is fueling growth.

政府不再简单地将基础设施和其他项目交给国营公司，而是越来越多地寻求私人资金来补充或完全资助其发展计划。

Plus, countries like Argentina and Brazil that went cap in hand time and again to development banks are paying loans ahead of schedule, and emerging markets in general are enjoying a surge in private sector inflows as investors across asset classes seek higher yields.

与此同时,根据世界经济论坛的数据,annual private capital flows to developing countries have risen nearly six-fold since the early 1970s, to $301 billion, while demand for World Bank loans last year was a comparatively meager $104.4 billion.

显然,private sector has overtaken the public sector in financing development. It's time for the IFC to shine.

国际金融公司（IFC）最近任命的执行副总裁拉尔斯•图内尔（Lars Thunell）说：“我们今天知道，每一美元的援助，就有四美元来自私营部门。”。18). "如果没有一个充满活力和多样化的私营部门，我们就永远无法获得发展，”图内尔坚持说。

国际金融公司拥有比其伞组织，世界银行更多的灵活性，为184个国家的政府提供现金。例如，私人武装可以在不支持该国等公用事业甚至市中心的国营公司投资，而世界银行则需要一个主权担保，然后才能延长金钱，例如，政府实体或私营公司基建项目。

"There is a terrible mismatch and the IFC could play a much bigger role," explains Richard H. Frank, who managed the IFC's finances for a spell during the 1990s.
Frank, who these days is chief executive officer of the emerging markets firm Darby Overseas Investments, proposes that the World Bank allot more capital to the IFC.

As of the end of 2004, according to the World Economic Forum, the World Bank had $78 billion in unused capital, some of which the IFC could utilize. This cash cushion will surely grow as countries continue to honor their debts. Net repayments hit a record $67 billion in 2005, according to data from the Institute for International Finance.

“需要根本性的改变，”弗兰克断言我认为有理由像50年前的政府一样充满想象力和勇气。”

第一个任务:欧洲
The World Bank traces its beginnings to a meeting of representatives from 44 countries in Bretton Woods, New Hamphire that took place in July 1944 as World War II was nearing its end in the European theater and countries there desperately needed aid to rebuild.

1947年，该银行向法国提供了第一笔贷款，即2.5亿美元的信贷。如今，法国是国际开发协会（internationaldevelopmentassociation）的第五大捐助国，该协会由世界银行（worldbank）最富有的40个成员国于1960年成立，旨在发放无息贷款和赠款。协会成员每三年注资一次。

In December 1945, Bolivia became the first Latin American country to sign the Articles of Agreement of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, one of the five elements of the modern-day World Bank.

这是曾经担任世界银行副行长的罗伯特L。美国银行家兼通用食品公司（General Foods Corporation）高管加纳（Garner）决定开辟一家私营部门分支机构——国际金融公司（IFC），该机构的行为更像一家公司，并持有股权。

The idea was to commit capital and assume equal commercial risks alongside private investors, and in the process to create jobs, increase foreign exchange flows and boost tax revenue. By taking on a private role, Garner thought, the bank could help replicate first world success stories in developing countries.

Today, the IFC is the largest multilateral provider of financing in the developing world. In its 50-year history, the IFC has committed more than $49 billion of its own funds and arranged $24 billion in syndications for 3,320 companies in 140 countries. At the end of 2005, the IFC had a worldwide committed portfolio of $19.3 billion for its own account, and $5.3 billion for participants in loan syndications.

去年，国际金融公司的净收入达到创纪录的20.1亿美元，约为花旗集团报告的十分之一，平均净资产运营回报率为22.6%。

No Project Left Behind
Peter Woicke, who ran the IFC for six years through 2005, thinks the agency should use its hefty earnings to invest in niches that aren't attracting much private investment, such as renewable energy and for-profit education.

批评者表示，国际金融公司还需要将更多努力集中在世界上最贫穷的国家。

去年，国际金融公司对撒哈拉以南非洲的新投资仅占64.5亿美元的7%，尽管该地区近一半的人口生活在极端贫困中，或者说每天的生活费不足1美元。在全球生活在这种环境中的大约十亿人中，超过三分之一的人生活在“失落的大陆”

尽管国际金融公司在非洲发起了数百万美元的倡议，但它在吸引合作伙伴到一个被普遍视为腐败问题困扰的大陆上却遇到了困难。

"We see the last big development challenge in Africa. Even there we see private money willing to invest if there is more transparency and institution building," Woicke says.

他的替代品，Thunell坚持认为，该机构计划在非洲发挥更大的作用。“大多数其他国家正在朝着正确的方向前进，但非洲正在进行错误的方向，”Thunell说。

同样，在海地等极度贫穷的西半球国家，私人投资者指出，当地基础设施老化和商业环境艰难是他们不愿在那里投资的原因。因此，这些国家通常仅限于世界银行等组织的赠款。

国际金融公司负责拉丁美洲和加勒比地区事务的董事阿图尔·梅塔（Atul Mehta）表示：“世界银行与这些国家的政府合作，但我们会说，你是否考虑过我们的客户告诉我们的所有这些对他们能够投资至关重要的因素？”

虽然国际金融公司的意图是令人钦佩的，但批评者表示，该机构不够快速地表现出来。“如果国际金融公司的使命是通过促进在获取发展金融有限的国家的投资来解决市场故障，他们应该更积极地移动，以支持低收入国家的当地公司，”银行执行董事Manish Bapna说信息中心，华盛顿智库。

例如，国际金融公司是否应该为墨西哥家庭抵押贷款人GMAC FINDIRA提供11500万美元的融资，这是可疑的，这是由美国集团通用汽车全资拥有的。此外，每年人均收入约为10,000美元，墨西哥肯定是一个“中等收入”领土。

"The process of graduation, or applying its (the IFC's) funds in more needy countries, should be accelerated," injects Citigroup's senior vice-chairman, Bill Rhodes, whose career in Latin America spans more than four decades.

The IFC's reluctance to move on from success stories like Mexico is part habit – only a decade has passed since the so-called Tequila Crisis – and equal parts caution. Markets that have matured enough to attract private finance can just as easily succumb to economic crises.

Mehta捍卫IFC在大型拉丁美洲国家的参与，并指出，尽管他们的经济体规模，但富人和穷人之间的差距是巨大的，巴西和墨西哥的一些地区与半球最下端的国家（墨西哥）有关。

Getting Better All the Time
尽管有人批评，国际金融公司自1957年首次投资以来，已经取得了长足的进步，当时它将200万美元委托给了德国科技巨头西门子（Siemens），而后西门子又将850万美元委托给了西门子在巴西的一个分公司。

To date, the IFC has injected cash into 670 emerging market companies.

与前几年对该区域的承诺相比，即使是2005年对撒哈拉以南非洲的适度投资也有了大幅增加。

Some of the IFC's most notable work has involved taking equity positions. In 1974, it invested $1.3 million in equity, made a $16 million loan and mobilized $5 million in funds from international commercial lenders for South Korea's LG Electronics, which was then known as GoldStar.

GoldStar was established in Seoul just five years after the Korean War ended in 1953. In its early days, the South Korean company made cheap radios, TVs and domestic appliances like washing machines. LG has since evolved into a world-class multinational corporation with over 72,000 employees and 77 subsidiaries reporting consolidated revenue of $45 billion in 2005.

LG等成功故事帮助韩国毕业于一场战争蹂躏，陈旧的国家到尖端的国家，平均年度家庭收入36,000美元 - 不再落后于美国平均价值45,000美元。

Furthermore, LG has turned around and invested in more than 25 emerging market countries.

最近，IFC站在阿根廷和哥伦比亚旁边。弗兰克，丹巴海外投资表示，该机构在2001年国家经济在2001年在2001年崩溃之后对阿根廷的企业压力局势发挥了非常重要的作用。“在哥伦比亚的情况下，”他补充说“IFC介入了很多远见并开始投资四五年前在非常好的公司，现在情况有所改善，资本更加经常流动。“

哥伦比亚抵押证券哥伦比亚哥伦比亚哥伦比亚州哥伦比亚抵押贷款证券公司哥伦比亚议会总裁Alberto Gutierrez表示，国际金融公司是当地投资者和监管机构之间的重要调解员，当时它在哥伦比亚1998 - 2002年金融危机中期投资于哥伦比亚的金融危机，在哥伦比亚创造了第一次抵押贷款证券化。反过来，抵押抵押贷款的二级市场催生，并踢出了该国的住房繁荣。

Titularizadora Colombiana wanted the IFC as an advisor and investor, Gutierrez says, because it promotes good corporate governance and is a responsive and efficient partner. "The IFC behaves more like a private sector institution than a development bank," he adds.

A woman pours water drawn from a well in Senegal.

后退两步
Not all IFC projects win praise. During the last decade, the IFC spearheaded privatizations of public utilities around the world. Some of those deals later came under fire from local communities for being too generous to investors; in turn, several private sector entrants complained that their businesses suffered from too much regulation.

For example, in a 1995 deal then-hailed as a model for water privatization, the IFC helped the municipality of Buenos Aires sell a $4 billion, 30-year water concession to Aguas Argentinas, a consortium led by French water company Suez.

但交易失败了。今年3月，阿根廷联邦政府解除了与苏伊士的合同，并成立了一家名为Agua y Saneamiento Ambital的国营公司。2002年1月，阿根廷金融危机期间，苏伊士政府紧急冻结了公用事业费率，经过多年艰难的谈判后，苏伊士退出了阿根廷。

阿根廷经济部长费利萨·米切利（Felisa Micheli）在4月初就反向私有化发表评论说：“尽管该地区居民的经济水平有所提高，但缺乏资金，因此政府决定投资。”

在其他地方，国际金融公司的一些努力更加持久。1995年，该机构与法国能源集团SAUR和Electricité 法国，共同出资在象牙海岸的Ciprel工厂。这座发电厂是撒哈拉以南非洲第一个独立的电力项目，帮助该国削减了30%的电费。索尔继续拥有和运营这座核电站。

Can-Do Man Before becoming executive vice president of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) this year, Lars H. Thunell was CEO of Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB), Sweden's second-largest bank by assets. At SEB, which oversees $240 billion and employs 20,000 people, Thunell masterminded an expansion plan for Eastern Europe. Prior to his eight-year stint at SEB, Thunell ran Trygg-Hansa, a Swedish insurance company; led Stockholm-based asset management company Securum, which was established by the Swedish government after that country's 1992 financial crisis; and acted as deputy CEO of Nordbanken, a bank that the Swedish government partly privatized after rescuing it from financial ruin. While working outside his home country, Thunell was credited with building ABB Zurich's financial services division in Switzerland. He also put in time at American Express in New York. Thunell holds a doctorate degree from the University of Stockholm, and he was a research fellow at Harvard University's Center for International Affairs.

Go With the Flow
然而，私人投资流量可以很漂亮。“过去15年的经历表明，私人资本动员对发展导向的投资不均匀，不可靠和不足，”世界经济论坛在1月份报告中总结道。

为了平衡这种Fickleness，开发银行表示他们自己需要参与，特别是在基础设施项目中。世界银行估计，新兴经济体需要投资5.5％的年度GDP，如道路，如在更全球化的世界中竞争。

Some emerging markets are kicking in more money than others. According to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), total infrastructure investment in Latin America last year amounted to $47 billion, or about 2% of regional GDP. Comparable investment in Asia and Eastern Europe was three times higher.

卡洛斯·吉马尔ã美洲开发银行的私营部门协调人es说，拉丁美洲和加勒比地区的基础设施投资似乎正在下降，而世界其他地区的基础设施投资却在同时回升。

"This means that we are growing more slowly, both because of lower allocations to infrastructure per worker and as a result of a loss of markets to competing regions that produce and transport goods at a lower cost and faster than many countries in our region," he said at the IDB's April meeting in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

IFC正在获取基础架构消息。去年，该机构投资了8.83亿美元的基础设施项目。相比之下，在1967年至1987年的二十年中，国际金融公司只预订了价值7800万美元的七项此类交易。虽然国际金融公司一直在制定基础设施投资，但在20世纪90年代末，它并没有认真考虑健康和教育项目。

Today, the IFC's health and education portfolio exceeds $300 million. Likewise, the IFC's founders never envisioned investments in housing or public utilities like electricity.

随着时代的变迁，国际金融公司也找到了在金融工具领域拓展业务的方法。传统贷款可能会占用资本数年，限制国际金融公司投资项目的能力，而债券等资本市场的备用贷款则给了放贷者更大的灵活性。

国际金融公司已在全球市场推出了一系列本币债券。例如，去年，它是第一家在中国发行所谓“熊猫”债券的多边机构，在中国发行了11.3亿元人民币（1.4亿美元）债券。

Chinese investors, who mainly hold government debt, jumped on the chance to diversify by scooping up the IFC bonds.

Similarly, the IFC's use of partial credit guarantees, which require less committed capital, have helped bring domestic issuers around the world to market. By only guaranteeing part of the debt, the IFC can keep more cash on hand to mobilize financing for additional clients.

IFC在2004年展示了2004年当它带来了一个子霸权的借款人，其中南非约翰内斯堡城市到市场。与南部非洲开发银行一起，国际金融公司保证了40％的本金，以1.53亿美元，12年债券计值;当地私人投资者在市场速度上以40至50个基点达成协议。

The IFC wants to replicate the success of the Johannesburg deal for municipalities in other emerging markets.

Frank describes the IFC in recent years as a "dealmaker" that seizes opportunities to make savvy investments, but that sometimes forgets it needs to encourage private involvement by promoting structural reforms. "The IFC needs to say: There is no deal here. We are trying to improve the system and help governments improve the local capital markets," he recommends.

As the IFC celebrates its 50th birthday, it has the best financial health in its history. It can afford to do more.