Brussels, 05/06/2003 (Agence Europe) - The European Investment Bank on Tuesday celebrated the launched of its new investment facility available to the 78 ACP (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific) countries of the Cotonou agreement. A financial envelope of 2.2 billion EUR will be available to promote the private sector and fight poverty in countries linked to the Union in a development partnership. Resources come from the Member States of the Union and are put into an EIB-managed fund. They are in addition to the 13.5 billion EUR of the 9th European Development Fund (to fund development programmes and projects over five years). The EIB has also renewed its commitment to pledge long-term loans to the ACP countries drawn on its own resources, to a total of 1.7 billion EUR over five years, and has announced three new regional offices in Africa (Dakar, Nairobi, Pretoria) to manage contact with the business centres of these countries, and to manage the activity brought about by the new facility. The investment facility will support private and public sector projects, which will be put into place in the ACP countries through loans, guarantees, and various risk-sharing instruments, as per the essence of Cotonou.
During the launch ceremony, EIB President Philippe Maystadt declared: "the Cotonou agreement gives new impetus to aid deployment, allowing this to be managed more flexibly and effectively, thanks to a strategy to make the ACP countries stakeholders in economic and social development. The contribution of the private sector will play a central role, as it is the catalyst for the ACP countries' growing involvement in the world of business. If we encourage the private sector's contribution, we will raise the standard of living and create jobs. The ambitious targets of the Cotonou agreement will produce new challenges for the EIB, as the stress the need to ensure the viability and profitability of the projects it is to fund under the investment facility (…). The EIB has already acquired wide experience of the private sector in ACO countries, where 45% of its investments are already supporting private sector projects".
Abdulaye Wade, President of Senegal, David Mwiraria, Kenyan Finance Minister, numerous representatives of the ACP group and Pedro Solbes, European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, attended the opening of the new scheme.