The international Finance Corporation (IFC), a subsidiary of the World Bank Group says it has provided a $10 million working capital facility to Frantera Agro-pecuaria del Paraguay (S.A.) to support farming operations in Paraguay.
In a release, the corporation said its financing will help bring farm land into substainable production and create opportunities for rural development.
Agriculture plays an important role in Paraguayan economy, with more than 42 per cent of the population living in rural areas and dependent on agriculture for livelihood. It represents about 25 per cent of the GDP, 30 per cent of employment, and almost all registered exports.
Frontera Agropecuaria del Paraguay, is a member of Desarrollo Agricola del Paraguay Group, the DAP Group, which is an industrial –scale agricultural farming company producing soyabeans, corn, and sunflowers in Paraguay.
“IFC’s support will allow the company to finance its working capital needs property and enhance its competiveness,” said DAP President Pascual Rubiani. He said the IFC investment will help develop agricultural farming, “based on triple bottom-line model-social inclusion, environmental care and substainable economic results.
Oscar Chemerinski, Director of IFC’s global Agric business Department, said “IFC financing will play an important counter cyclical role during the current financial crisis. IFC will be providing financing to Paraguay’s agriculture farming sector to support local players like the DAP Group that adopts sustainable farming practices. The investment is expected to contribute to rural economic development and increase food supply.”
IFC’s strategy in Paraguay is focused on supporting access to finance for micro small and medium enterpreises, promoting global trade, and providing advisory services to improve the investment climate. Key sectors include infrastructure particularly in the areas of transport, electricity, agric-business development, and financial markets.
The corporation creates opportunity for people to escape poverty and improve their lives. It fosters sustainable economic growth in developing counties by supporting private sector development, mobilising private capital and providing advisory and risk mitigation services to businesses and governments.
DAP on the other hand is a business group with significant Paraguayan and international investments. It is setting a new management benchmark for agribusiness in Paraguay by introducing the triple-bottome-line mode-economic, social, and environmental-and works in partnership with the civil society and rural neighbouring communities. Meanwhile, its committee on Development Effectiveness (CODE) has considered the report entitled “Independent-Evaluation Group (IEG). It did this together with the Draft Management Response (DMR).
In the report, the committee commended IEG for a comprehensive- evaluation and generally agreed with the main thrust of its recommendations.
It expressed its pleasure that overall, IFC achieved high development results in most of its investments and advisory services (AS) operations.
It said some members asked management to present an action plan for implementing these recommendations and that members agreed on IEG’s recommendation for IFC to be prepared to address the many of the challenges ahead given the current global financial crisis, including balancing between the need to protect the portfolio and the need for IFC to play what they called a counter-cyclical role.