MCC Receives Award for Best Investment Climate Initiative

During one of so many rewarding moments surrounding this year’s UN General Assembly, I was privileged to accept an Investment and Business Leaders award on behalf of MCC for Best Investment Climate Initiative of the Year recognizing MCC’s ongoing leadership in promoting private investment to fight poverty through economic growth.  The award from Africa investor – which MCC was honored to share with the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency – was presented at the CEO Investment Summit in New York, where MCC was among a distinguished group recognized by Africa investor for exceptional business practices, economic achievements, and investments across Africa.

This recognition for MCC reminded me of the pride I have for the work we do to improve the business climate and promote private investment as a means of reducing poverty in our partner countries.  MCC’s model inspires policy reform to remove barriers to private investment, and we continue to develop new approaches for attracting private investment in Africa and our partner countries around the world.

MCC’s $498 million compact with Ghana is a good example.  The focus of the compact is the Government of Ghana’s work to reform its power sector, and putting it on a path to solvency and sustainability to attract more private investment. Policy reform is a top priority as MCC develops new compacts.

This year, we’ve also launched a number of new initiatives to encourage investment in Africa.  MCC launched its Investment Outlook series to provide an overview of investment opportunities in select MCC partner countries, including El Salvador, Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia.  Each Investment Outlook gives an overview of the investment climate in the partner country and a summary of the MCC compact, making them a useful tool for sharing opportunities with companies.

MCC also conducted its first ever Trade and Investment Mission, partnering with the U.S. Department of Commerce to bring representatives from 10 U.S. companies to Tanzania and Malawi. The mission introduced companies to opportunities in the energy sector and highlighted investment climate reforms supported by MCC.  Many in the delegation identified new business opportunities during the trip, and expressed an interest in joining future trade missions.

We were also proud to announce MCC’s Public-Private Partnership (P3) platform, a commitment of $70 million in MCC grants to support the preparation of public-private partnerships in our partner countries. The commitment is expected to bring $1 billion in private-sector investments over the next five years by leveraging MCC’s focus on policy and institutional reforms to allow for P3s, and by funding the required preparatory work to prepare bankable projects and select investors through an open, competitive process.  MCC’s second compact with Morocco, for example, is supporting an industrial land activity that will prepare public-private partnership transactions for the development and management of industrial zones.

It’s been a busy year at MCC. We’re proud of our new initiatives and honored to have received recognition from Africa investor.  As we look to the year ahead, we are excited about the opportunity to continue this important work.