Brussels, 02/05/2012 (Agence Europe) - Two investment facilities have just been launched by the European Union, one for the Caribbean, the other for the Pacific, with a combined initial envelope of €50 million, the European Commission announced on Wednesday 2 May.
These two financial instruments, made available to two of the three regions which make up the ACP States (Africa/Caribbean/Pacific), will aim to plug the funding deficit for vital infrastructure projects, in order to make these two regions competitive on the global markets, to stimulate their economic growth potential and reduce poverty in these countries, which are linked to the EU via the Cotonou agreement, the Commission stresses.
The aim is to achieve a leveraging of the resources of the European Development Fund (EDF), designed to make grants to the ACP countries, by adding to the loan capacities of the financial and capital institutions of the private sector.
With an initial pot of €10 million, the Investment Facility for the Pacific (IFP) will focus on projects to fight climate change - a plague which is particularly threatening to small island states - and green investments in the transport, energy, telecommunications, water and cleansing sectors, and on actions to adapt to global warming and reduce the impact of natural disasters. This capital may be granted to certain SMEs and investment projects in the social sector, by combining the contributions of the EDF and loans from European and regional development financial institutions.
The Caribbean Investment Facility (CIF), with a budget of €40 million, will set its priorities in the fields of interconnection, energy infrastructure, transport, the environment, adapting to climate change, reducing CO2 emissions, social services infrastructure and supporting the development of the private sector, particularly SMEs.
The Caribbean and the Pacific will take part in the planning and operations of the facility created for each of their regions. These two investment facilities will be established on the basis of the facilities model which already exists for other regions of the world, such as the Latin American Investment Facility (LAIF), the Neighbourhood Investment Facility (NIF), the Investment Facility for Central Asia (IFCA) and the EU-Africa Infrastructure Trust Fund (ITF). (AN/transl.fl)