ROME – Italy’s Ministry of the Treasury and the Inter-American Development Bank today signed an agreement for the establishment of a trust fund to support the preparation of innovative projects of the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), an autonomous fund that promotes private sector growth in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Under the agreement signed by the head of the Treasury’s International Financial Relations Department, Mario Dragui, Director General of the Treasury and IDB President Enrique V. Iglesias, the trust fund’s resources will be provided by the Government of Italy and managed by the IDB.
Italy, which joined the MIF earlier this year, would contribute a total of 6 billion Italian lire to the new trust fund.
The Multilateral Investment Fund was established in 1993 to accelerate private sector development and help improve the climate for investment in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The MIF seeks to demonstrate innovative approaches that will make markets work better, with particular attention to issues affecting microenterprise and small businesses not addressed by early stages of the reform process in many countries.
Over the past six years, the MIF has approved 306 projects and two lines of activity, with a total financing of $1 billion. Over half of these resources are targeted to the less developed countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.