The next webinar in FIDIC’s 2024 series of online events takes place on Tuesday 27 February 2024 and will be looking at the issue of investment for large-scale infrastructure and how such investments can be de-risked by international financial institutions (IFIs) like the multilateral development banks in order to draw in private sector finance thereby helping to fill the funding gap.
The webinar, De-risking and leveraging infrastructure investment: Helping the private sector fill the funding gap, has been organised by the FIDIC International Financial Institutions Committee and will provide a platform for IFIs to air their views and highlight the steps that they can take to de-risk these major investments to make major infrastructure projects more attractive and bankable for those organisations looking to invest in them.
Questions to be addressed at the webinar include: - What can the IFIs do practically to de-risk and leverage in investment? How can the key issues of lack of funding, climate change and technology challenges be addressed and overcome to encourage investment in the major infrastructure the world badly needs?
Potential solutions from the IFI community could include: -
Risk mitigation: IFIs can offer guarantees or political risk insurance to lower the risk profile of infrastructure projects, making them more attractive to private investors.
Blended finance: The strategic use of development finance and philanthropic funds to mobilise private capital flows to emerging and frontier markets, achieving more impact than either could on their own.
Credit enhancement: IFIs can provide credit enhancements to infrastructure bonds, improving their credit ratings and making them more attractive to institutional investors.
Technical assistance: IFIs can support project preparation and implementation, improving the quality of projects and the likelihood of success.
Approaches to reducing the infrastructure investment gap to be discussed at the webinar include the use of Public-Private Partnerships, developing a regional approach to infrastructure, new and better models for funding infrastructure to attract a wider range of investors.
Confirmed speakers at the webinar include representatives from the World Bank, the Multilateral Cooperation Center for Development Finance (MCDF), members of FIDIC's IFIC Committee and the FIDIC board. The speaker line-up is listed below.
- Luis Villarroya, President, Eptisa and FIDIC Board (Spain).
- Suraj Rana, Managing Director, DT Global and Chair, FIDIC International Financial Institutions Committee, (UK).
- Frederic Wiltmann, Head, Programme Team, Multilateral Cooperation Center for Development Finance, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (China).
- Şebnem Erol Madan, Practice Manager, Infrastructure Finance and Guarantees Group, The World Bank (USA).
- Wale Shonibare, Director, Energy Financial Solutions, Policy and Regulation, African Development Bank (Ivory Coast).
- Vera Monika Masurat, Senior Consultant, GOPA Infra (Germany).
- Gregory Liu, Acting Director General, Infrastructure Investment Department (Region 2), Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (China).
The speakers will offer their perspectives on the key issues around de-risking and leveraging infrastructure investment as they see them, giving practical examples based on their experiences and work.
