Private Sector Liason Network

The IDB Group provides information about business opportunities arising from the Bank's activities--both direct lending and procurement financed by the Bank through public-sector projects with high development impact in the region--to private-sector firms and consultants throughout its member countries.

The Bank collaborates with a network of Private Sector Liaison Officers (PSLO)--designated clearinghouses for information on Bank projects and programs who work in chambers of commerce, investment promotion agencies and business and trade associations in borrowing and non-borrowing member countries--to promote the activities of the IDB Group in its member countries, and to strengthen communication between the Bank, private sector companies, and financial institutions located in the member countries.

PSLOs support firms, consultants, and financial institutions in the member countries interested in encouraging sustainable development in Latin America and the Caribbean and serve as useful contacts for disseminating information to a wide range of private sector companies and financial institutions on how to work with the IDB Group and how to strategically identify potential partners in the region.

The World Bank launched the PSLO Network in 1999 and invited the IDB and other multilateral banks to use it as a platform for business outreach.  The IDB helped to create the  Canadian PSLO Network in September 2005 and formalized relationships with European PSLOs in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom in October 2006.  The IDB began work with PSLOs in the United States in 2009.