As Prepared for Delivery
Thank you to Bloomberg Philanthropies for hosting this second Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) Investor Forum. I’m glad to be here with World Bank President Ajay Banga, my colleagues Jake Sullivan and Amos Hochstein, and with the business leaders who have helped drive progress on this partnership.
Over the past three and half years, the Biden-Harris Administration has scaled up financing and policy reform work to support emerging markets and developing countries. We know many of them face pressing challenges today, from the increasing severity and frequency of climate-related events to significant debt burdens. We also know government alone cannot overcome these challenges; we need the private sector in order to bring the necessary scale of investment.
That’s why, over two years ago, we launched the PGI to mobilize $600 billion for global infrastructure investments, recognizing that this moment demands wide-ranging international investment and public-private collaboration. The United States aims to contribute one-third of this total, and we’ve already mobilized $60 billion toward that goal.
Along with mobilizing private capital toward PGI investments, we have also put private capital mobilization at the heart of our multilateral development bank evolution agenda. Thanks to President Banga’s leadership, we’ve seen the World Bank make private capital mobilization part of the scorecard it uses to measure and drive its results.
Over the past two years, I know this group has discussed the barriers that hold back private sector investment. Since last year’s forum, I’m happy to say we’ve made progress in removing these barriers.
For example, Treasury worked with the Investor Leadership Network to support the launch of a new $400 million debt fund and is helping grow the pipeline of bankable projects. This will help provide the stable, patient capital that is needed for critical investments in the energy transition.
In addition, the World Bank launched a new Guarantee Platform housed at the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) that aims to triple guarantee issuances by 2030. This platform will streamline and expand guarantees against non-commercial risks like political risk, thereby providing investors with more protection in markets they would otherwise find risky.
We also heard concerns about foreign exchange risk. That’s why over the past year—including through the Private Sector Investment Lab—I know the World Bank has made progress on developing and scaling innovative tools to create solutions for investors.
To expand the ways in which the private sector can engage, the United States led the charge for the Inter-American Development Bank’s private sector investment arm, IDB Invest, to implement a new business model predicated on an “originate-to-share” approach. This will create new opportunities for risk and return sharing with the private sector and catalyze financing into sustainable development projects in Latin American and the Caribbean. The business model incorporates blended finance to reduce risks for investors, simplifies project approval processes, builds out the advisory services and technical assistance, and will be supported by a $3.5 billion capital increase that doubles IDB Invest’s capital base.
Across these projects and more, we are proud of this progress we have made. But we also recognize there is more to do to unlock greater investment. And we are committed to do so because these investments from American companies not only generate return for their investors, but they also address our global challenges, create economic opportunity around the world, and make Americans safer and more secure.
I look forward to hearing others take stock of where we are today and discussing what together we need to do next. Thanks again for joining us today, and let me now give the floor to Jake.
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