~N. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~c < It > * 5 \ B' Just Out! Three new publications of interest are now available from IFC Investing in Private Education in Developing Countries Between 1995 and 1997, IFC approved just one investment in private schools each year. But in 1998 it approved seven private education investments, and several more are now in preparation as the Corporation faces a wave of interest and requests for financing of education projects. This new report outlines IFC's strategy for participating in education, an essential component of development and one in which private ownership is increasingly playing innovative, constructive roles throughout the deve)- oping world. IFC's goal in this work, according to the authors, is to act as a catalyst to spur other private invest- ment in education, help mitigate risks, and pass along its findings to the education and investment communities. Investment Opportunities in Private Education in Developing Countries A landmark conference at IFC in June 1999 brought together 150 private education providers and investors to share their unique viewpoints on private education worldwide and IFC's growing role in supporting it. The gath- ering specifically addressed the frequent criticism that private education caters only to children of the elite, finding many cases instead in which it helps build the strong middle class that is missing in so many societies, and whose presence can contribute so much to improvement of living standards. The presentations summarized here came primarily from educational entrepreneurs in developing countries, such as those behind the virtual university of Monterrey Institute of Technology in Mexico, the Brazilian school chain Pitagoras, Egyptian textbook publisher International Printing House, and others. They are intended to "contribute to a greater understanding of the challenges and opportu- -S. =, ^ ~ *~.. nities in this important area," writes IFC Vice President Birgitta Kantola. Building the Private Sector in Africa to Reduce Poverty and Improve People's Lives "Africa poses special challenges that call for a response different from IFC's approach in other regions," writes IFC's execu- tive vice president, Peter Woicke, in this new report. It outlines the Corporation's current strategy for developing the private sector in Africa to help build the foundations for what Woicke calls "the sustained economic development that has so far eluded most of the region." The report summarizes IFC's reasons for focusing on several key ways to achieve this goal, such as developing the local financial sector, building indigenous entrepreneurship, investing in private infra- structure, and targeting key sectors where Africa has a comparative advantage, such as extractive industries, agribusiness, tourism, and others. At the end of fiscal year 1999, IFC's African portfolio stood at $676 million. * s * While the economic climate has improved substantially in many countries in the 1990s, the report makes it clear that much more still needs to be done. "More and deeper reforms will be necessary to improve the business environment, and the financial sector in particular must be stronger and more diverse if it is to support private business growth," Woicke writes. These reports are available free of charge from IFC's Corporate Relations Unit, 2121 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20433 USA, phone: 202-473-7711, fax: 202-974-4384, e-mail: Impact@ifc.org. IFC The IFC Review of Private Investment in Developing Countries IFC is a member of the World Bank Group supporting private sector development in member countries through investment, advisory services, and technical assistance. International Finance Corporation 2121 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW IF C Washington, DC 20433 USA www.ifc.org F a I I 1 9 9 9 V o I . 3, N o . 4 E d i t o r Rob Wright D e s i g n Patricia Hord.Graphik Design In this issue 2 Bringing Back the Balkans How do you create new jobs in an ultra-high risk environment with some of the worst unemployment on earth? There's no easy answer. But working with J I the little guy is the place to start. . r 10 Getting on the Brandwagon To fare better in the fight against poverty, developing countries need their companies to start exporting not just products, but brands, London-based consultant Simon Anholt argues. 18 Building Accountability from the Ground Up Meet Meg Taylor, and the challenges she's taking on. 22 Energy Efficiency in Hungary IFC invests with Honeywell in a model effort that could be duplicated in several other countries. -- 26 The Bank on the Bund One thing China desperately needs: strong new banks with a bottom line mentality. It might just have one in the Bank of Shanghai. 29 Wole Soyinka What does one of Africa's greatest writers have to say when he comes to the World Bank? Tell us what you think! Fix: 202-974-4384 E-inii I: I|a5.c (np icl-C Ic.sg Cover and pp. 10, 14-15 illustrations: The Image Bank All references to dollars are US dollars unless otherwise indicated. - - cr |- wSl4)~~~~~A 4 N. t ,'_ s> 4 I*iL I D~~~~~~~~~~ D~ X X..L D 0...: Rob Wright IFC Corporate Relations ..... \I ., c if~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~i p -~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~C portionl of the Ballcan Penin.sula -Serbia, Bosnia- Serbs . They, don't fight- thley have breakfast and coffee together Herzegovina, antd other prov inces . Political intri"oue, constanlt every day. For 90% of them this is their first real job arid they just rivalries, a total absence of po)litzcal spirit, hatred of all races, w^ant to enjoy u'orkinu too-ether. People in this country are able to animosities o; rival religions and absence of any controlling communicate and livJe together. It's just the politicians who can't. power... .nothinlg short of an army of 50,0090 of the best troops But perhaps somne day wte'll get them all drinking wine together would produ-e . i' 1in.! o like order in. these pOStS ." too. Then everyvthing would be fine again ." - Benjamin Disraeli, prime minister of - Raif Dzafic , general manager of Bosnian meat- Great Britain, 1878. processing comnpany Akova Impex, 1999. Av lagng cai decrb adqutl t(i (oto ofreimgtb itrse oko that Msofurenlysac,olm; thers r roat and poti of th Baka Peisl - Seba Bosia Sebs Threnty d n't fight -50,00Qav butmreakfstand cofee,000 he anioite o ivlreigos asnc f n cnoi g cAOmmniaed pandlieke oethers i tn jonly the smaliticianes wof thcBlan't Grea Brii 1 . processing Impacty A Fal l 1999,IVol.3, No.4 -~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~tl bot be riht Fi, bW held parts of Bosnia, N~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~" Croatia, Kosovo, and Serbia in their grip... :iI7~ 1t¶~ g!Hi1rlrres gem ll0< IF>W, ! l FK - - b j ordinary life tro'' ~ * l4~~ MI J v v |to an end ... kept -i- z4 j . . - raxr @errt 8 W E hard-working, honest t>@Xh 4SIe\X'lr'h>, igd -. .i .ih..1 ii,' - M i people afraid to tO_fju'i __ -qboglN(Of dd .t - ------ -- - - return to their for- t5iJ 1 4Mfo,< , 'I'' :, < - ,- , ! * :. ! *'! -1''' .- ., = mer homes for fear of ,. ,. A , - .-,, -,:1 being hunted down _ r 1,*, r s1X) g XkQCs . .1- *4 1 ~4- '~ 1 ; g GOtbb like animals. Why Bosnia and FYR doesn't the world Herzegovina Macedonia simply wash its Population 3.9 million 2 million hands of the Balkans? Because the GDP per Capita $1,000 $1,000 decade's death toll Unemployment 35% 30% there tops 250,000 Annual Foreign Direct Investment $100 million $75 million - or roughly four times the US dead in Current Account Deficit 35% of GDP 5% of GDP Vietnam -all of it IFC Investment $50.8 million $64 million but a half-day's travel from the cities of Othello, of Freud, of Sources: World Bank, USAID estimates Liszt. And because no one wants it to happen again. Peninsula, Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that occu- How can outsiders help in a place of such torment? Probably pying troops could be in this region a long, long time. Without only by looking past the horror and building on the positive the ominous, heavily armed presence they provide, many fear energy of the Balkan people - especially those now the horrors of the recent past could soon return: gang rapes and rebounding from agonies the rest of us can scarcely imagine. mass graves; waves of refugees; a "successful" air war that also These are precisely the kind of people IFC and its partners may have killed as many as 1,400 Yugoslav civilians. are working with, and they show the strength of the human spirit. Workers at a Bosnian factory, for example, are now The Balkans are difficult by any definition. And they are a place producing furniture called "Phoenix," symbolizing their coun- where the cynics see no hope. Great empires of history have try's rise from the ashes. A Macedonian bank whose hopes unraveled there: Roman, Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, perhaps were dashed even Soviet, whose end may have been foreshadowed by Tito's last year when O ( , _ 1948 break with Stalin. Since every effort for lasting peace there a proposed B olkn.oke (bollo-nTz ) V. has failed, the cynics say, how can the future be any different buyer pulled l - -l S,astts than the past? History shows that fighting breaks out every 50 out over ,. years or so, and that linking all these troubled countries togeth- rumors of war er works no better than letting them drift apart. in Kosovo has since found That's what the cynics say, all right. And they are of no help what it considers an even better one. A Croatian inventor whatsoever to international organizations that are in business, . has designed a product with excellent market potential - like it or not, for one reason: to make the world a better place. robots that can safely clear his country's landmines. A Bosnian businessman who lost his house, his savings, every- All attempts at internationalism, IFC's included, undoubtedly thing but his family to ethnic cleansing still finds a way to have problems, but even a short Balkan visit shows why they joke: "We say nema problema even though we've got problems are made in the first place. It is to somehow help prevent a up to the roof! It's been that way for centuries." These are recurrence of the systematic death and destruction that have the horses to bet on. is Impact a Fall 1999, Vol. 3, No. 4 - ince the end of the West's war against Slobodan Milosevic, some of the highest unemployment rates in the world. And since Ik ~the Balkan nations (generally defined as all the former small economies are made up mainly of small companies, the work LZjIYugoslav republics except Slovenia, plus Kosovo, Albania, has inevitably involved finding ways to help them. Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, and the European parts of Turkey) have received more intemational attention than ever before. n nglamorous as they may be, small and medium enter- Much of it comes from the European Union, which last summer prises (SMEs) are the key source of job creation and launched an unprecedented cooperative effort called the Balkan economic growth in this part of the world, and most Stability Pact to plan a course for democracy, peace, and prosperi- others. Helping begins with finding the good ones and provid- ty, backing it up with more than $2 billion in Kosovo aid pledges. ing them with financing not available locally. They need the support, for they are caught in a region with little honest The European press widely derided the effort from the outset, and domestic money to invest, and one that foreign investors are not a soul underestimates the difficulty involved, least of all the understandably reluctant to touch. After meeting with Stability Pact's coordinator, Bodo Hombach of Germany. Much of Stability Pact leaders in Berlin in late October, more than the criticism has come not just from cynics but from those who see 100 top US and European CEOs issued a statement that themselves merely as realists, convinced the Balkans' future is called conditions for investing in the Balkans "highly nega- unfathomably bleak. But the efforts continue. Those with a sense tive," mainly because of poor physical and financial infra- of history remember the area's incendiary role in the last two world structure, "lack of transparency and professionalism in govern- wars and desperately want the Stability Pact to succeed. The rise ment administration," and "widespread corruption and bribery since the pact was signed of far-right anti-immigrant parties in that act as a major obstacle." The group's cochairmen, the Austria and Switzerland, where many from the Balkans have fled CEOs of Xerox Corp. and Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux S.A., in search of a better life, adds yet one more disturbing twist. insisted their members will only invest when the legal and "Either Europe will force stability on the Balkans, or the Balkans financial environments improve and corruption is reduced. will force instability on the rest of Europe," is how European Commissioner Chris Patten puts it. So for the time being it is up to organizations like IFC to take the financial risks and pump up the private economy. But smaller The purpose of the Stability Pact is to coordinate all security, Balkan companies need more than just money from IFC. They also political, and economic efforts in Southeastern Europe, thus need access to outside experts and someone to plead their case for a decreasing the chances that things will unravel further in years better business environment before unsupportive govemments. ahead and increasing the odds that they might even improve. Such pioneering work is costly and difficult, requiring IFC to Hombach has had some interesting things to say about it. "We mount an extensive field presence under mettle-testing condi- should have begun earlier with a process like this - in fact, 50 tions. Not many high rollers take it on, even though it does years ago," is one. Here's another: "The experience gathered have its advantages. It introduces you, for example, to people during Bosnia and Herzegovina's reconstruction shows that a like Raif Dzafic. When we met him, he was sipping blueberry reconstruction that is solely based on government programs has juice and doing the single best thing anyone can do to combat little impact. The precondi- tion is cooperation among the Southeast European Bosnian Carnage: People used to live here - until they were ethnically cleansed. states, support for small and medium-sized companies, and the creation of stable - framework conditions for . . a foreign investors." Z. _ Quietly over the past three ; years IFC has worked toward 7'J those very goals, to date . . . 4 Žj. *... 7 mainly in Bosnia and ' - nr Macedonia, and increasingly now in the surrounding coun- tries as well. These small . economies are racked by ', . fSj* . . a L unemployment: signing payroll 'Either Europe will force Agency for International Development checks. His meat-processing com- stability on the Balkans, or (USAID) financing program for local SMEs. pany outside Sarajevo, Akova the Balkans will force insta- The two sources together gave Akova Impex Impex, now employs 150 people. t r f ,, what it needed, and the plant opened for busi- Its sparkling new plant runs at bility on the rest Of Europe. ness with an integrated work force of 100% capacity, producing cold Moslems, Serbs, and Croats earlier this year. It cuts and sausage for the local mar- Chris Patten, European has been running ahead of projections ever ket. It is a plant this Moslem vet- Commission since, selling its tasty processed meat products eran of the local food industry had to 2,700 grocery stores, restaurants, and whole- intended to open in the spring of salers around Bosnia. 1992. But war got in the way. On May 28 of that year, he well remembers, Bosnian Serbs shelled his site, burning his dream to Employees seem genuinely glad to be working there. They the ground and looting whatever was left. attribute its success squarely to the way Dzafic and his partners run the company. "When I came back, all I found was six meters of metal," Dzafic recalls today. "Not even faucets or taps." "We've got good management," says a busy plant foreman, rush- ing to check if a new shipment of frozen beef has arrived. "They Peace finally came three grueling years later. Dzafic collected the were in business 20 or 30 years before this, and even though family he had sent to Italy for safety and started again from scratch. Bosnia went through the hell of war, they were able to with- The war's devastation of rural Bosnia left him convinced that his stand it. They can bounce back from anything." once-fertile country could no longer produce more than 5% of its food needs. But people had to eat. Owner of a restaurant and group Why, we ask? of small grocery stores that had survived the war, he was able to pull together enough money to rent a small cold storage facility and "Mainly because they're willing to take risks," he barks. Then it's began importing whatever meat he could to make beef prosciutto, back to work. Hundreds of boxes of sausages must go out today. salami, and other local favorites. All the while he looked for high- efficiency production options that would let him make an afford- But filling the financing gap is hardly the only thing Bosnian busi- able mass market product and still have a little profit left over. nesses need from IFC. Although Akova Impex's sales are strong, its home economy is not, and it can easily take 90 days to collect Akova Impex had two of the key ingredients for business success: a receivables from customers. The company must also pay both sky- market opportunity and good management. It lacked just the high weekly import duties on the frozen meats it gets from third: financing. Rebuilding its meat-processing plant now Western Europe and New Zealand and equally lofty utility bills to required the equiv- state-owned electricity, water, and telecom monopolies. When Meeting Payroll: IFC client Raif Dzafic alent of $4.6 mil- asked if he's tried complaining to government officials, Dzafic signs paychecks for the 150 Bosnian lion, far more than answers with a wry "they don't want to listen to us." workers whose jobs he created. Bosnia's fragile banks could pro- IFC and its colleagues in the World Bank, however, can use vide. So IFC took a their influence with governments to press for specific policy chance, investing reforms that will improve the business climate and give entre- staff time in help- preneurs a better chance. By bringing its market perspective ing Dzafic develop into the debate, IFC tries to show local policymakers how the a detailed feasibility regulatory environment can actually choke off the small busi- r r~l.~ 11# study. When the ness job creation they otherwise claim to support. results proved favorable, IFC gave efore the war, when Bosnia's economy was twice the size his company a $2.2 D it is today, one of its strongholds was the wood-process- million, five-year ing industry. It was the basis of SIPAD, a state-owned loan, supplement- powerhouse that in the heyday of pre-1991 Yugoslavia had ing the $450,000 annual sales exceeding $1 billion, successfully moving its attrac- the small firm had tive furniture in middle-market retail outlets across Europe and earlier been able to the United States. But like so many of the remnants of that get from a US once-powerful country -which had a population of 23 million The wood-processing industry was an economic cornerstone of prewar Bosnia, but now operates at only 10/_Oc~pacity. Bringing it back to life is difficult - both for local companies and for IFC, which-has made the effort6obre Gf its biggest projects in the Balkans. The key is partnering with small local banks that k,iow-thei'97ofrtheJand - The Challenge * Revitalizing key industry in high-risk postconflict environment * Little foreign or domestic capital available * Few banks or companies privatized * Wood companies need hands-on advice and training as well as financing * Direct involvement costly and labor intensive for IFC; viable delivery model must be found locally The Response IFC Bosnian Wood-Processing Companies * Provides $14 million long-term debt facility to be broken down into smaller subloans * 7-8 state-owned enterprises each receive 5-7 year, * Arranges $2.2 million in technical assistance grants $1-$2 million loans for working from Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, and Norway for consultants to wood companies from Deloitte & Touche capital, spare parts, equipment upgrades (accounting), others (marketing and operations, * War criminals not eligible (accoumentin, othersi(marketion andpo, operati, * IFC involvement makes companies attractive to investors for privatization, restructuring * Incentivized with .05% reduction in interest payments Bosnian Banks upon privatization * Help IFC by identifing/screening potential clients, * With new financing, can slowly rebuild production doing pre- and postinvestment support work to previous levels * Receive fee of .75% of each IFC subloan (average fee: $17,000); provide 10% matching financing from own resources in each case and both the highest living standards and freest society in the try's Serb, Croat, and Moslem populations, or even what exactly Communist world - all of SIPAD's former holdings must now happened. A shrug and a perplexed "everybody fought everyone" operate more or Icss independently, even if it doesn't make are the usual response you get. Inga's counterpart in the country's much sense for them to do so. One such unit, called Inga, sits Serbian enclave, a firm called Manjaca, was seized and stripped of only 500 meters from the border with Croatia, a wealthier mar- almost all its machinery by Croats who had driven out all the resi- ket it desperately needs. Yet Inga's tables and chairs cost 22% dents of a beautiful mountain town in the war's final days. Asking more there than in Bosnia, thanks to high taxes and a trade war why this happened doesn't really help. between the two countries. Almost no one will buy at that price. There's also not much hop4of business in Serbia, histori- "This is the Balkans," says its investment director, Slobodon cally the company's biggest demand center but now almost writ- Cockolo. "And that's the way war is. There are no rules. If you ten off because of currency instability. complain, they cut your head off." "This used to be one country, one market," mourns Inga's finance Then a far-off look takes over his face. director, Vlado Kunovac. "We don't need these kinds of barriers." A Bosnian Serb, Kunovac fled his former home across the country "There's a mass grave over there with 184 people in it, all with little more than the clothes on his back when the Moslem civilians," he says. army moved in. He hasn't dared to return. A conversation with him reveals how futile it is to try to reconstruct the reasons for the The wood industry he represents cannot be ignored if Bosnia's war between extremist elements purporting to represent the coun- economy is to have any real chance of recovery. Experts consider Impact o Fall 1999, Vol. 3, No. 4 s the local beech supply to be as good as any in the world, and say launched the first equity fund of any kind in Macedonia in 1998 the country has all the technical know-how it needs to regain its with $4 million in seed money from USAID and then saw the former competitive position. But the problem is the same one fund grow to $12.5 million last year as part of capital increase Akova Impex faces: lack of financing. Few foreign investors are that included $2.5 million from IFC. That should be enough for interested, given the high political risk and well-publicized reports investments in about 35 different Macedonian companies over of rampant corruption in a country that has received more than $5 the next few years - investments that are just one part of a billion of foreign aid since 1995. To help, IFC has set aside $14 close strategic relationship with SEAF designed to take the million to break into smaller loans for companies like Inga and companies beyond where they could go purely on their own. Manjaca, with local banks providing a 10% match and invaluable help on the ground in each case. With the financing comes con- The money is being invested in companies like Nasto, a cheese siderable donor-funded advice in marketing, production technolo- producer started in 1996 with money sent back by a grandfather gies, and other essentials that the companies otherwise could not who had immigrated to Detroit and built a successful bakery. At afford. Without the support from outside, specialists fear the com- the time, his grandson, Ljubco Genadiev, was working in the panies would lay off even more workers and tragically get out of construction industry and had a small restaurant on the side, but processing altogether, instead devastating their forests by exporting had bigger ambitions. raw logs to Europe in a desperate dash for cash. "Nobody believed Nasto would succeed," Genadiev recalls with Manjaca, for example, is one of only two major employers in its a suave stroke of his goatee. "There already was a state-owned factory town of 18,000. Although the wartime looters reduced cheese producer in town, and everybody thought that was the company to little more than a carpentry shop, Cockolo enough. But we started to build a reputation by paying our sup- expects the IFC loan to speed up the pace of its revival by 15 plier dairies on time - unlike the state company, which really years by allowing purchases of new machinery. He vows to bring played games with them." his labor force back to the prewar level of 600. Although Nasto has created 38 direct jobs, in all likelihood it is Money may be lacking in such companies, but confidence cer- those suppliers - usually poor peasants in the surrounding hills tainly is not. Even though its budget is squeezed tight, Manjaca owning just one or two cows - that are gaining the most from has recently set up an NGO offering free computer classes to its entry into the marketplace. Three years into operation, it town residents, using PCs donated by the Orthodox Church. Its now buys milk regularly from 700 of these small farms, providing motto: "The whole world is ours. We know we can." a steady cash flow to supplement family incomes that are other- wise only about $100 a month. Like Akova Impex, it has artnering with others who have more experience sup- become a nice little success story, crowding out imports with a D porting small companies in "frontier economies," fresher, more affordable locally made product. But the next step J whether USAID, a Bosnian bank, or another institu- was unclear. It was financially limited by geography, trapped in a tion, is humbling but vital for a large, foreign-based institu- country where many people have lost their life savings in bank tion like IFC, whose typical transactions are in the neighbor- failures and where risk perceptions keep the supply of outside hood of $10 million -far more than small companies can equity about as small as can be imagined. absorb. In essence it comes down to this: to work with the lit- tle guy efficiently, it pays to have the right partners. One of The country's one investment fund, though, did not overlook IFC's key channels in this regard is the international niche Nasto. SEAF sensed the firm's potential and last summer began investment group Small Enterprise Assistance Funds (SEAF), talking to Genadiev about his idea for adding a new higher-value manager of nine for-profit entities that target SMEs only. Its product, long shelf-life ultra high-temperature (UHT) milk. Since country director in Macedonia is a US banker named Bob there was only one other dairy in Macedonia and it could meet Webster who started his career lending to local companies in only 60% of the country's milk demand, the opportunity seemed Maine and Kentucky. He stayed in Macedonia throughout the self-evident. Still, many obstacles stood in the way - the kind 11-week NATO bombing campaign, even though the Kosovo that unfortunately often spell the demise of small businesses the border is less than an hour from his office and there were real world over. But after extensive discussions, SEAF and Nasto possibilities of Serb retaliation. worked out financial models that showed the UHT project could work, and the investment fund provided a $480,000 debt/equity A spin-off of the nonprofit humanitarian group CARE, SEAF package, giving it a sizable minority stake in the company. Using began as a small business investor in Poland in the early 1990s their USAID connections, the new investors then brought in con- and has built a successful track record since, doing a great deal sultants from a US dairy industry leader, Land O'Lakes. Through to help local companies in difficult transition economies. It these talks, Nasto is leaning to convince its suppliers to spend a Impactu Fall 1999, Vol.3, No.4 m Building small business is hardly the only thing to do in the Balkans. IFC is also working to strengthen some of the biggest private companies in both Bosnia and Herzegovina and FYR Macedonia. Though tiny by global standards, they are key players locally and need outside help to reach the next level. Bosnia Lijanovici Meat Processing Annual revenues: Lent $2.5 million Expansion to $31 million in 1998; then allow 30% increase Employees: 700 arranged $86,000 in production; ' I' -- i' -- - ^-- ' Exports 40% of Danish technical building a model its production to assistance grant company for others g III'IIm i Croatia and for advice on to follow Macedonia quality control and distribution VISOKAI QLANiCAb. issues to prepare R RO KI I firm for entering the EU market Macedonia Teteks Textiles, Garments Annual revenues: Arranged more Expansion; increased $47 million than $400,000 in competitiveness of Employees: 4,500 donor grants of company projecting Exports 55% of starting in 1994 36% increase in output to US/EU for company's in exports over next markets first international- 5 years level audit and studies on technology and marketing options; results led to $1.5 million 1997 loan little money improving the hygiene of their milk, as required in nents in its design for the first time. Its low overhead allows it UHT products. Meanwhile, with SEAF's money Nasto can buy to sell a comparable product 20% below the cost of its Western packaging machinery from Sweden's TetraPak, the world's trend- competitors. It is an impressive small company with good man- setter in consumer cartons. Projections show annual revenues agement and a hard working staff. But when the first tremors climbing to $3.2 million next year through the greater diversifica- out of nearby Kosovo appeared last year, all its potential tion, which would also bring more jobs at the Nasto plant and Western customers immediately shied away, fearing a new higher prices paid to the dairy farmers in the hills. And if other Balkan war might destroy the company and ruin their spare projections bear out, Nasto could be experiencing an additional parts supply. Worse, the bombing of Serbia then closed off 80% top-line growth over the next six years -enough for SEAF Masinomont's best-established market, leaving the company to sell its equity position, either back to the sponsor or to another with few reliable revenue streams. It would be a killer combina- investor at a solid return. tion for anyone, but worse on a small company confined to a single product line. Try as it might, last March Masinomont But that's a big "if," one that sums up the nature of the risk went into default on the interest payments on its IFC loan, capital that Balkan companies so badly need. And no one who making a rescheduling almost inevitable. really takes risks can win them all. In late 1997, for example, IFC lent $800,000 to a Macedonian producer of equipment for IFC continues to believe in the company, paying for a market- the glass industry, Masinomont. After years of selling mainly in ing consultant in Germany and supporting Masinomont's the Balkan countries, the company was interested in raising its founder in a round of trade fairs and company visits in Western quality standards to the level demanded by Western European Europe in hopes of drumming up sales. But, as much as any- buyers. By collaborating closely with a French partner, it has thing, Masinomont encapsulates the economic plight of this now reached that goal, featuring Siemens and Bosch compo- small, tranquil country surrounded by trouble on almost every side. Continued onipage 21 Impact. Fall 1999, Vol. 3, No. 4 N~~~ .-.~ ~~~~~ ~ I ;~ ti ,I\ *--* Xl "N~~~~~~~~~~l IX~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I To get an edge in the new global economy, K1 *developing countries should stop thinking products and start thinking brands, writes Simon Anholt, Chairman of World Writers Ltd., London. "Mamma, mamma, ci fai andare nella casa di Pinocchio?" e.7 , w 1 = \ (Mummy, mummy, will you let us go in Pinocchio's house?) he speaker: my youngest daughter, Claudia, aged three. The place: Disneyland Paris. She is speaking in Italian, her mother's tongue, yet pronouncing the name Pinocchio in the American way: pin-know-key-oh. . ; , ;;,f,.+ § il ~~~~~~~~This sets me thinking. The correct pronunciation of the famous fibber's name is pin-knock-key-oh - that's the way millions of Italians have said it ever since Collodi first creat- ed the story in 1880. But my daughter, like most European children in recent decades, has been brought up on a steady diet of Walt Disney videos. And because we live in England, I we tend to buy the English-language versions of the videos, which are of course the American-language versions. - j_ _ . _S1 . My children firmly believe that pin-knock-key-oh should be _ . 'l pronounced pin-know-key-oh, and that the story is ~- 3= . American, as are Mary Poppins, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mulan, and all the rest of them, despite their distinct- ly recognizable backdrops of London, Paris, and China. Ah, America. It's one of the world's most enduring, power- ful, and compelling myths. It's also home of the world's most successful brands. The two are not unconnected. Disney and McDonald's, Coca-Cola and Levi's, Nike and Pepsi -all are known to come from America. This is a fun- Awr - . : / damental part of their international success and the reason that their American-ness has always been, quite rightly, stressed in their advertising messages. These days, it is not just what a brand represents. Where a brand comes from is often one of the very few differentiating factors among-the bewildering variety of apparently identical products bom- ^ . . ^ 'r~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~barding the consumer at every point of purchase. We live I'.: ! > ; i ' 'in an age where products can originate almost literally any- d Z . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~where on earth, and knowing which country they represent 5 g : t : ,- H ' iii| ~~~~~~~~can be as significant a part of our decision to buy as know- ing which company they're from. *t 5_ .. . .. . - Impact * Fall 1999, Vol. 3, No.4 4 I well recall that day at the "casa di Pinocchio." My family suc- that name, and consequently allows the owner of the brand cumbed to the force of what many specialists consider to be the name to launch new products more easily, and to charge more world's most powerful brand: Disney. The minute many con- money for them, than can its competitors. The sugary brown sumers sense the presence of that magic name and logo, alone liquid in a Coca-Cola bottle, for example, can retail for up to worth $32 billion, according to a recent Interbrand/Citibank twice as much as very similar sugary brown liquids marketed study, they gain confidence in a vast array of otherwise unrelat- under less valuable brands. The brand is where the profits of ed products: films, theme parks, clothes, toys, cruises, even an most consumer goods companies come from; it's their competi- entire ready-made town (Celebration, Florida). Many, like my tive edge and, increasingly, their raison d'etre. The book values of the real global megabrands (that is, .. the value of the entire company minus everything tangible) - are -" often greater than the GDPs of ,fljb ~wiumsmaller countries. One of the great advantages of brands over commodities is that they are an infinitely sustainable resource - that is, as long as their value is maintained through careful mar- - + - - - keting. Their value resides primar- ? s ily in the mind of the consumer, -_____ _ -, not the factory of the producer. s - ~~~~- .- 2 Z ~~~~Once created, this makes them * .' > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~j surprisingly difficult to destroy. I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ i theme park, November ~ tSharing f the Wealth _;5ifw -' w Clearly, the notion of export- Year of the Mouse: HongKongChifExecutiveunghe-hwaandamarketngreping branded rather than __" . unbranded products is a com- i i - ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~pelling one. This is particular- ~~~ ~~~ - | I~~~~~~~y true for developing coun- s ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ | ~~~~tries, which could especially bene- 4 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ X ~~~~fit from a movement toward glob- Year of the Mouse: Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa and a marketing rep al brand export: it is part of a sus- of the world's most powerful brand, announcing plans for Disney's third international tainable wealth-creation behavior theme park, November 1999. that could ultimately help them escape from the poverty cycle. daughter, soon start to see the world through the all-seeing eyes of the Mouse, and the mighty brand behind him. As it stands, most developing countries are enmeshed in a pat- tern of economic behavior that keeps them poor: selling A well-respected brand name carries undeniable clout. But unprocessed goods to richer nations at extremely low margins, what, exactly, do we mean by the term? thus allowing their buyers to add massive "value" by finishing, packaging, branding, and retailing to the end user. Examples Technically speaking, a brand is the promotion of consumer abound: Nigerian oil, Nestle chocolate, and all the rest. It is a preference bound up in a recognizable commercial name or process that often helps deplete the source country's resources identity. It is the sense of predictability and quality assurance while keeping its foreign revenues at a break-even level at best. that adds a measure of trust and appeal to a product sold under Creating and selling international brands, on the other hand, Impact m Fall 1999, Vol. 3, No. 4 is the classic trick of industrialized nations. It is one born of u * B necessity, perhaps, since some of the world's richest nations B illi on-D ollar B rands have precious few commodities to export, but it is one that many poorer nations would do well to emulate. For it is con- By one recent estimate, a full 50% of the money made ceivable that if consumers in developing countries are faced globally over the next 25 years will come through the with the choice between yet more brands from the G-7 power of brands. Working with Citibank, the inter- nations, and new brands from "colleague countries" in the national consultancy Interbrand found 60 brands that developing world with no shady colonial past, they might just when measured apart from their corporate parents' feel more comfortable with the latter. other assets were each worth more than $1 billion. In Global brands as the ultimate distributor of wealth? It's an some cases the brands - respected ID tags hung on a intriguing thought. host of different products - were by far the most important factor in determining the overall market value In today's hypercompetitive global marketplace, where so many of their owners. The leaders: products are functionally identical to their many direct competi- tors, a powerful brand is just about the only remaining legal competitive advantage a company can possess. One attribute Brand's Share of that is particularly important to international brands is the Brand Value Company Value influence that the brand's origins (or its perceived origins) has _ . on the consumer's perception of the brand. When you look at the question of a brand's provenance, it becomes clear that cer- 1. Coca-Cola $83.9 billion 59% tain countries behave almost like brands in their own right. Just c) like commercial brands, "nation brands" are well understood by 2. Microsoft $56.7 billion 21% consumers around the world, have long-established identities, 3. IBM $43.8 billion 28% and can work just as effectively as an indicator of product quali- ty, a definer of image and target market, as the manufacturer's 4. General Electric $33.5 billion 10% name on the package. 5. Ford $33.2 billion 58% Without doubt, the world's most powerful country brand is the 6. Disney $32.3 billion 61 % United States. This may well be connected with the fact that "Brand USA" has the world's best advertising agency, Hollywood, which has been busily pumping out its two-hour 8. McDonald's $26.2 billion 64% cinema commercials for the best part of a century, and which - here's the irony - consumers around the world have enthusias- 9. AT&T $24.2 billion 24% tically paid to watch. 10. Marlboro $21.1 billion 19% Indeed, Brand USA is so powerful that companies around the 11. Nokia $20.7 billion 44% world will often attach bogus American values to their domestic 12. Mercedes $17.8 billion 37% brands in order to give them a more glamorous image. One of the biggest-selling chewing gum brands in Italy, for example, is called 13. Nescafe $17.6 billion 23% "Brooklyn," its packaging proudly displaying a reasonably accurate 14. Hewlett-Packard $17.1 billion 31% drawing of the eponymous bridge. The fact that the product is manufactured by Perfetti of Milan is, from both the consumer's 15. Gillette $15.8 Billion 37% and the manufacturer's point of view, a very minor issue indeed. Apart from the United States, though, only a few countries have clear, consistent, and universally understood brand images, and most of them are European: for example, England Source: Interbrand/Citibankstudy, 1999 (heritage and class), France (quality of life and chic), Italy (style and sexiness), Germany (quality and reliability), Switzerland (methodical precision and trustworthiness), Sweden (cleanliness and efficiency). Impact e Fall 1999, Vol. 3, No. 4 1Ert As might be expected, all these countries produce successful market, excellent marketing and distribution, Nokia has turned international brands that are in tlrn strongly associated with itself from a moderately successful domestic producer of rubber their brand qualities: so England gives us Burberry and British boots into one of the most successful high-technology brands in Airways; France gives us Chanel and champagne; Italy gives us the world. In doing this, it has also managed to create an entirely Ferragamo and Ferrari; Germany gives us Bosch and BMW. new set of associations with "brand Finland" in many consumers' Switzerland gives us Swatch; Sweden, IKEA. Together, they give minds. No longer just a quaint fairyland perched on the farthest us one of the great industrial brands, ABB. fringe of Europe, known mainly for saunas and reindeer, this is a country that can do technology, can do marketing. People believe In fact, it's hard to find any international brands that don't it can become a world-beater. come from strongly branded countries: brand-neutral countries like Belgium, Portugal, Austria, Chile, or Norway have pro- And there's a good deal of that mysterious, associative consumer duced remarkably few international market leaders. logic that makes this shift believable: who knows - perhaps it's something to do with the fact that cold countries are believed to But nation branding does not depend on government promotion be precise and efficient countries, which makes them good coun- alone. It is primarily a private sector-led process, one that reach- tries to make high-tech products. So if other Finnish companies- es the foreign consumer's latent desire to buy into his or her and Finland itself -don't move quickly to build on and leverage favorite parts of the sourcing country's image. this climate of global consumer acceptance, then they are missing a great opportunity. Sadly, Nokia itself seems at pains to diminish Still, the record shows nations can enhance their own brand its own origins in the way it markets its products, perhaps in an values, just as manufacturers can enhance the value of their effort to appear "global" (that is, nationless), which means that commercial brands. Japan is perhaps the most striking example this valuable pro-Finnish opportunity may be going to waste. of a country that bad succeeded in completely altering its values as a provenance brand in a short space of time: 30 years ago, Still, Finland, Japan and Korea are all rich countries. What "Made in Japan" was a decidedly negative concept. It stood for about poor ones? shoddiness. Today, though, it is enviably synonymous with advanced technology, manufacturing quality, competitive pric- When you try to match provenance with product, there are ing: even of style and status. some pairings that clearly make brand sense, and others that just don't. People might well buy Indian accountancy software (the Korea, too, has undergone a similar, even more rapid transfor- $61 million March 1999 NASDAQ debut of Bangalore's Infosys mation in its brand image, thanks to the efforts of such corpora- Technologies has certainly helped this association) or a stylish tions as Hyundai, Daewoo, Samsung, and LG. Lithuanian raincoat, and although I'm tempted to say that they probably wouldn't buy Peruvian modems or Croatian perfume, Other countries could perhaps capitalize on the success of their attitudes can and do change quickly. Fifteen years ago, who high-profile brands: Finland and Nokia, for example. It appears would have believed that we Europeans could be happily con- crucial for Finland to capitalize quickly on the significance of suming Chinese Tsingtao beer or Malaysian Proton cars? Nokia's origin if it intends to make itself into a valuable nation- brand: through a combination of high product quality, speed to Or, indeed, who would have believed that one of the world's most successful and fastest-growing manufacturers of jet aircraft Brazil the Brandable: A country with enviable ingredients would be a Brazilian company, Embraer? for "nation-branding." So why hasn't it happened? A New Era? The stage, therefore, is set for the emergence of many poorer - -r | countries as respected, even privileged provenances for suc- cessful commercial brands. As Embraer shows, successful branding often emerges where we least expect it. Sometimes that happens not at the retail but at the wholesale level, where a - \ > + company purchasing agent is the consumer, and someone else he never meets is the actual end-user. Still, many barriers must be overcome. Brazil, one of the most L , ^ ,"strongly branded" countries in the world, produces almost no other international commercial brands whatsoever. This is sur- JU~~~~~~~~~~~' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~4> 1 prising, par- Currently, however, almost all of Brazil's export income derives ticularly from the sale of raw commodities (such as soybeans, tobacco, . because the iron ore, and coffee), semiprocessed goods (such as cellulose, brand print steel, soy oil, and sugar), and largely unbranded manufactured - . . F - of Brazil is goods (such as shoes, orange juice, sheet steel, and automobile t associated tires). Many of these exports contribute directly or indirectly to A ; with a very the depletion of the country's natural resources. _ homoge- neous and There is no question that if these bulk exports were to be coherent set enhanced or, indeed, replaced by the sale of branded goods direct- Ji^> 1: of values. ly to overseas consumers, profits -at least for the owners of "Brand these brands -would rise dramatically, and the level of profit Brazil" has generated by the success of these brands might soon overtake the - much going income created by the export of commodities. for it-the merriment The opportunity to capitalize on the positive and powerful associa- 00 ----- of dancing tions that Brazil evokes in people's minds all over the world is not, the samba at by and large, being seized - at least not by Brazilian companies. Carnival So far, it is largely through the efforts of companies in North time; awe- America and Western Europe, for example, that Brazilian coffee is Ur -some rain- sold on supermarket shelves in richer countries. There are also - forests as plenty of Western companies making great capital out of real and - - endangered bogus "rain forest" ingredients. But the real value of "brand Brazil" as they are is, as yet, untapped. exotic; sex, Could She Sell Software? India has much of beaches, The Western consumers' curiosity in things exotic is in all like- it to offer. sport, adven- lihood the best market-building strategy for developing coun- ture. All are tries to pursue. Yet few have Brazil's natural advantages: a attributes strong nation-brand, combined with an increasingly healthy that could contribute to the brand print of almost any successful economy, and a government that actively encourages the youth product on the market today, especially in the food, cos- export mentality, not to mention considerable domestic experi- metics, fashion, music, and even automotive and industrial fields. ence in brand-building. After all, even though it emerged from military rule and hyperinflation only a few short years ago, Admittedly, these are cliches that may be depressing, even Brazil enjoys a democratic climate, and this has enabled the insulting, to the average Brazilian, but they are undeniahly a creation of many highly successful entrepreneurs, domestic fine platform on which to build a believable global brand. It is companies, and domestic brands (not to mention one of the one of the tasks of advertising and marketing to manipulate best advertising industries in the world). these cliches into something more creative, more substantial, more fair, more true - just as Australia leveraged actor Paul Nonetheless, with the right combination of marketing expertise, Hogan's "Crocodile Dundee" role to market tourism, Foster's government support, a high-quality manufacturing base, invest- beer, even the Subaru Outback sport utility vehicle. ment, and a creative brand strategy, many countries around the world have the basic potential to develop a healthy brand-based The fact that there are negative associations (pollution, overpop- export economy. To spot the opportunities, all you need is the ulation, poverty, and the like) within the brand print of Brazil is brand development skill, creative flair, and the grasp of global not necessarily a cause for great concern, at least from the brand- consumer psychology to make credible and attractive pairings ing point of view. After all, a strong brand is a rich brand, and between the country brand and the brandable products that richness implies a complex and satisfying mix of many different country produces. elements. The brand equity of the United States also contains a significant proportion of negative elements, but does little to And the oddest things do happen. One of India's largest con- diminish its attraction, especially when the audience you're deal- glomerates, the mighty Tata Group, is currently in the process ing with is composed of younger consumers, who demand to of buying the Tetley Tea Company of England, the world's second- challenge and be challenged. largest teabag manufacturer - a spectacular reversal of the tradi- Impact r Fall 1999, Vol. 3, No. 4 tional arrangement, where the tea is grown in a poor country and who knows how to recognize them: even the owners of some of sold at a low price to a brand-owner in a rich country who sells it the new channels of communication have yet to realize the true on to rich consumers at a vastly higher price. value of what they're offering. China too has proved full of nasty surprises for many Western Poor Country = Poor Quality? manufacturers: more than $270 billion has been invested in Until recently, it was also true to say that the biggest hurdle that Chinese ventures, by thousands of foreign firms, since 1992, emerging country manufacturers had to overcome before yet few Western companies have succeeded in making any launching their brands boldly onto the international market was money in China. The Economist recently reported that the common consumer perception of poor manufacturing quali- Whirlpool, launched enthusiastically in China in 1994, built ty - "unless it comes from Europe, Japan, or North America, it factories to manufacture household appliances it confidently can't be properly made" -but, again, circumstances are con- expected to sell to the Chinese, only to find that it couldn't spiring to change people's minds. compete against domestic brands. (Indeed, one of these rival firms, Haier, is now beginning to market products under its For this, we have the rich country producers to thank: over the own brand-name, with some success, in North America). After last few decades, consumers have become very familiar with losing more than $100 million and shutting down most of its those humble little stickers on the underside of their American factories, Whirlpool now manufactures washing machines for or European-branded goods ("Made in Vietnam," "Made in Guangdong Kelon, another of its Chinese competitors, that Mexico," and many more besides), and they have quietly are sold to Chinese consumers under the Kelon brand. So per- absorbed the fact that a great many of the products they buy are haps the next great nation-brand association in the making is manufactured (to the high standards required by those American China, soon to be recognized by consumers worldwide as a and European brand-owners, naturally) in poor countries. byword for quality domestic appliances. The American and European brand-owners could hardly have What It Takes done their supplier nations a better favor. The perception only has Naturally, launching a global brand requires flair, confidence, to be enhanced a little further, and brought repeatedly to the con- and chutzpah -especially if you don't come from a Top Ten sumer's attention, and yet another barrier preventing the develop- country. It requires objectivity to an unusual degree: the ability ment of global brands from emerging markets is removed. to see yourself as others see you, and to accept that this is, at least in commercial terms, more important than the way you see One last obstacle standing in the way of emerging countries as yourself. It also often requires government support. producers of global brands? It may be purely psychological: a simple lack of self-confidence. After years of acting as mere sup- And it requires constant investment in the country brand itself, pliers to more commercially successful nations, many developing which in turn requires commitment, collaboration, and effective countries suffer from what you might call the Groucho Marx synergy among the main purveyors of the country's image in the syndrome ("I'd never belong to a club that would have me as a global media: usually the national tourist board, the national air- member"): the idea that nobody in a rich country could possibly line, and the major food producers, because these are the routes by be interested or attracted by brands coming from a country so which the national brand is most commonly created and exported. poor and unimportant as theirs. Until a few years ago, it would also have been true to say that Well, that perception is probably less true now than it has ever building a global brand requires lots of cash to buy advertising been before. As we hurtle toward the millennium, there is a media: until the "new media revolution" happened, this was pronounced shift in Western tastes and fashions, including one the sine qua non of building global brands. You just couldn't towards "Asianization" -a yearning for the values of older, think of building a global brand for less than fifty or a hun- wiser, more contemplative civilizations than our own. dred million dollars a year: quite simply, as in all extremely mature and heavily exploited markets, every media vehicle Never before has there been such a vogue for the "ethnic," had its own value calculated to the nth degree, and there were the organic, the exotic. Just look at Ricky Martin, proudly no bargains. singing in Spanish on his way to becoming not only Latin America's must successful pop star, but one of its top global But with the Internet-driven media revolution, we find our- exports of any kind. Look around us and we see World Music selves in an entirely new context for buying and selling, in an (currently the fastest-growing part of the big record labels' immature and as yet very imperfectly understood market. And catalogues, and fast overtaking the hitherto unquestioned in immature markets, there are bargains everywhere, for anyone dominance of the big American popular entertainers); World Impact u Fall 1999, Vol. 3, No. 4 Cinema (occasionally rivaling the success of Hollywood have seen, be very logical and very obvious, or they can appear blockbusters); World Cuisine (a Parisian family recently totally random. For Kellogg to launch a new kind of breakfast offered me sushi when I visited their home -a phenomenon cereal on the market is just as much to be expected as is a new that would have been literally unthinkable a few years ago!); wine from France or a new fashion label from Italy. But when the phenomenal surge of interest in alternative, Eastern, and pseu- Caterpillar, a manufacturer of earth-moving equipment, recently do-Eastern remedies (acupuncture, shiatsu massage, aromatherapy); launched a range of casual footwear, it was as surprising and and much more besides. exciting as a software giant emerging from India. The Western consumer is attracted as never before by the cultures When a country does have the courage, insight, and creativity and the products of distant lands. Now, surely, is the time for to move away from the classic paradigm of "national produce" the rightful owners of the truly exotic nation-brands to leverage and celebrate the fact that it produces brands that make you the power they hold over the imagination of the world's richest think again about the country that produces them, the results consumers. Now is the time for them to start making back some can be far more noticeable, and consequently far more prof- of the money that they have paid rich countries for their prod- itable. Somewhere in the mysterious processes of consumer ucts over the past century, to begin to reverse the relentless flow logic, Caterpillar boots made sense, and the resulting brand of wealth from poor to rich, and to redress some of the imbal- extension benefits both the company's core business and the ance between the lucky and the unlucky nations of the earth. new business: it really is a case of two and two making five. This is one kind of aid that emerging countries could find truly The factors that make consumers buy products from certain valuable: the international branding expertise that can create brand names and not from others - whether these are coun- unexpected and inspiring connections between countries and try brands or corporate brands - may seem somewhat myste- consumers, and that will enable countries to launch their prod- rious. The perception of a brand in the mind of the consumer ucts onto the global marketplace with confidence, with a big is like that game where you join up a series of numbered dots noise, and above all, with pride in their origins. A to make a picture of an animal. But in branding, the dots have no numbers, and the brand-owner has little control over Simon Anholt is the founder of World Writers, a global how the consumer will join them up in his or her mind, and creative consulting firm that works on branding and what kind of creature will be the result. But refined tech- other issues for multinational clients that include Coca- nique, long experience, and above all a profound understand- Cola, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft, Nike, ing of cultural differences and consumer psychology can make Nestle, Sony, and others. He is also the author of Another One the process far from random. Bites the Grass: Making Sense of International Advertising (John Wiley and Sons, 1999). In reality, "brand extensions" -where a brand-owner launches a new product line under an already familiar name - can, as we Impact Fall 1999, Vol. 3, No.4 U , . Building ccountability From the -round Up The New Compliance Adviser/Ombudsman Shawn Miller IFC Corporate Relations At first glance one wonders a bit and ears for people affected by an IFC- or local social and environmental conditions. about the butterflies. Mounted in MIGA-financed project and as a provider In Meg's view, the intersection of sustain- about tebtriof solid, practical advice to IFC and ability and private sector development is windowboxes in Meg Taylor's new MIGA on complex social and environ- not hard to cross. Washington office, they absorb the mental issues. afternoon sun, reflecting back their "Environmental sustainability and private Her office will be a point of contact for sector development can be synonymous," own luster and depth of color in a local people that have a legitimate com- she says. "A lot depends on the type of most rerarkable fashion... plaint or concern regarding an IFC- or project, the extent of local community MIGA-financed project. Her mis- participation, and forward thinking of all T she butterflies tum out to be not sion is to improve the two insti- stakeholders about life beyond the project." just things of beauty, but impor- tutions' performance and tant symbols as well. They rep- accountabili- Her views derive from her past experience resent Meg Taylor's pragmatism, her ty, and in PNG sitting on the boards of several sense of purpose, and her commitment Meg companies, including one of the world's to sustainable development and improv- biggest mining projects, Lihir ing people's lives. More than 800 species Gold, and other ventures of butterflies live in the endangered rain in the agribusiness and oil forests of Papua New Guinea (PNG), her and gas sectors. home country. But so do people - people with immediate everyday needs such as Comfortable in both the basic health care, education, and food. boardroom and the NGO Meg has long worked to be a bridge - world, Meg's strengths are her between these two worlds, supporting for- t / diplomacy and conflict resolution profit ventures that provide real economic E l skills, empathy with vulnerable groups opportunity, and hope, for poor people j and local communities, and knowledge of without negative environmental conse- comes v jr both the risks and opportunities in quences. ready for cc addressing environmental and social the challenge. issues within a private sector context. Her new role may be just as challenging As PNG's former ambassador to the These skills and personal traits were just as catching a butterfly. Since arriving in United States, she has long been a consul- what the World Bank Group's president, July as the first environmental and social tant on projects dealing with complex James Wolfensohn, was seeking in the compliance adviser/ombudsman (CAO) environmental and social issues. She was CAO, who reports directly to him. of IFC and its sister organization the one of five independent experts, for exam- Multilateral Investment Guarantee ple, assessing the World Bank's studies of ' efore Meg's appointment, the idea Agency (MICA), she has had a difficult how the proposed $1.2 billion Nam Theun of an accountability mechanism for task: juggling responsibilities both as eyes 11 hydropower project in Laos would affect both IFC and MIGA had been dis- Impactm Fall 1999, Vol. 3, No.4 -. - __ a give Meg Taylor a staff- may view the CAO's office as just -~- --~ ~ - - -- - . . - , good platform to one more hurdle, or perhaps even a % j carry out her chal- potential roadblock, in securing IFC lenging and impor- financing. But just the opposite is <- ~ tant task." intended; Wolfensohn views the office as Woicke, IF--'s an opportunity to add value to the project Peter Woicke, IFC's finance,and development process. 4 * executive vice pres- - v - ~~~~~~~~ - C ~~~~ident, adds that "Fundamental to the role of the CAO is Meg Taylor's arrival its practical and solution-driven orienta- -- - - | presents a unique tion that is designed, whenever possible, opportunity to to achieve a positive outcome for the move forward on locally impacted community and the pri- the development vate sector project sponsor," said side of the Wolfensohn upon Meg Taylor's appoint- Corporation's mis- ment to the vice-presidential level post in I~ + ^ S-sion to build a pri- April of 1999. vate sector in devel- -.- -~ oping countries. This view is echoed by Andreas Raczynski, IFC's technical and environ- "Development is ment department director. about people, and one of Meg Taylor's "Meg Taylor's appointment is a critical 0 strongest assets is her step in enhancing accountability and cred- comfort level and ibility for IFC's operations. Meg brings a Happily Challenged: Meg Taylor's job balances IFC's understanding of unique combination of experience with inside and outside worlds. local communities' community-based organizations, NGOs, needs - she is not and private sector corporations which will cussed extensively with the NGO and afraid to roll up her sleeves and engage in add much value to our transactions," business communities, both of which were dialogue with people on the ground," says Raczynski notes. represented on an external search commit- Woicke. "It is also important to note that tee that aided Mr. Wolfensohn in selecting this is a home-grown approach to improve FC requires public consultation with the first CAO. the development impact of IFC-financed I local communities as part of its projects - this will positively strengthen Aenvironmental assessment process. Bjorn Stigson, president of the Geneva- our institutional accountability." This approach is also part of good corpo- based World Business Council for rate citizenship. Meg Taylor agrees Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and Raised in an isolated valley in the PNG wholeheartedly dialogue and informa- a former executive vice president of ABB, highlands, Meg has a longstanding con- tion sharing are key ingredients to build- chaired the committee. nection with local community concems. ing trust between parties - especially Her mother, a member of a highlands clan between neighbors such as project "The CAO selection process was a bold in the Wahgi valley, taught her local tra- financiers and local communities. move by the World Bank and Jim ditions and the link between one's envi- Wolfensohn, asking a group of 'out- ronment and quality of life. Her father, "IFC and MIGA, as publicly accountable siders' to carry out a search for a vice an Australian explorer/administrator, set- institutions, have to think hard about what president in the World Bank Group," tled in the highlands and planted coffee is really meant by the term 'client.' If we're says Stigson. "The search was an exper- in the Asaro valley. Meg considers her here to alleviate poverty, local people and iment in a multistakeholder process that childhood valley a unique place - and communities are clients as well," Taylor turned out to be remarkably efficient. It still calls it home. says. "We have to leam to listen." utilized the substantial network and knowledge of the search committee mem- Fond memories aside, she is also well As the first CAO, Meg Taylor is building bers and created buy-in and ownership aware that some present and future IFC the office from the ground up. She realizes from key stakeholder groups. This will project sponsors -and even some IFC how important it is for all stakeholders to Impact * Fall 1999, Vol. 3, No. 4 industry, to discuss ut Meg's concerns also lie in the operational guidelines challenge of forging strong ties for the office. Working with people on the ground. She with consultants led by is acutely aware of how far away David McDowell, for- Washington may seem to people affected mer director general of by an IFC- or MIGA-financed project. the International a s ~~~~Union for the "It will be a real challenge to let com- Conservation of munities know that the Office of the Nature, the new CAO CAO exists, and it will listen to their plans on consulting concerns," Taylor says. "However, it -- . _ ~ extensively with NGOs will be a greater challenge to manage ' . @.7 J v-liis,> Z;|z.t;/tv and civil society, busi- communities' expectations. At times, ,';z;, 4 .. - t.fl ness, and other inter- this office will find solutions to prob- ested parties in the lems; at other times it may not. developing world. The Clearly, there may be disappointments. draft guidelines will be But, in trying to be responsive and available on the CAO accountable to local people, we are giv- website ing them a chance to speak and have (www.ifc.org/cao) for a their voice heard. That is a big step in period of three months. the right direction." 5 i Any interested party, from present and future Meg Taylor wants people to know that . . x project sponsors and her office is accessible: to locally affected ' w. -, a C NGOs to IFC and people and NGOs, to private sector proj- E MIGA staff, may com- ect sponsors, and to IFC and MIGA man- 2 o ment, and the com- agement and staff members. 16&a~ ments will be taken S s>eXz z into account when a As Friends of the Earth's Durbin puts it, final draft is prepared "Mr. Wolfensohn speaks highly of the Captured in Their Glory: Butterflies symbolize the in the spring of 2000. need for the Bank to be more account- CAO's home country. able as a public institution. While Meg Andrea Durbin, inter- Taylor is bringing a wide range of differ- be involved meaningfully in the process national program director of Friends of ent experiences and goodwill to this of developing operational guidelines for the Earth-US, notes that the consultative accountability effort, we will want to see the CAO office. approach has worked well in bringing what happens when communities start NGOs and business to the table. banging at the door." "It is common sense to talk with and listen to your partners, either in business or in "We applaud IFC's and MIGA's new Meg Taylor says banging is unnecessary development. Establishing open dialogue CAO for bringing together different - her door is already open. H will lead to a mutual understanding. And, stakeholders, including representatives of yes, there are bound to be differences, but business and the NGO community, to try Any interested individual may comment there often will be common ground upon and forge agreement on how the new on the draft CAO operational guidelines which to build trust," Taylor says. compliance adviser/ombudsman should by going to http://www.ifc.org/cao or by function," says Durbin. "We find that e-mailing cao-compliance@ifc.org. Meg Taylor truly believes that consulta- when we come together, there is a lot tion and dialogue are the only ways to more commonality and agreement than Shawn Miller is IFC's NGO relations and achieve consensus - and ultimate trust differences between NGOs and business. outreach officer. He also conducts policy - between parties. One of her first acts That is because we are talking about cre- analysis and writes on environmental, social, as the new CAO was to convene a ating a mechanism that operates by using and public consultation issues at IFC. He roundtable workshop, composed of repre- common sense." can be contacted on smiller i ifc.org. sentatives from NGOs and business and Impact * Fall 1999, Vol. 3, No. 4 LC3iIrw-: 7 --- n l-~rL -. )no amount of foreign aid will ever be enough to provoke lasting recovery; and most new job creation will happen in the smaller Continued from page 9 companies. The Akova Impexes, Ingas, Manjacas, Nastos, Nevertheless, IFC is doing all it can to help, even going well Masinomonts, and others, now desperately cut off from access to beyond the SME sector by investing $11 million to build the com- capital, often have all it takes to succeed if only given a fighting petitiveness of two of Macedonia's largest companies, Alkaloid and chance. For this reason, IFC's Central and Southern Europe Teteks, plus a total of $40.7 million more to help attract major for- Department is currently working with donor agencies to create a eign partners into the upcoming privatizations of its largest bank new facility to support small businesses in Macedonia, Bosnia, and national telecommunications company. All told, Macedonia Kosovo, Albania, and possibly other parts of the Balkans that the has about as much IFC investment relative to the size of its econo- world of commercial finance barely touches. Like similar efforts my as any country in the world. It needs it. IFC runs in Russia, sub-Saharan Africa, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and elsewhere, the new facility would offer a host of ser- "All of our efforts have involved bringing Macedonia closer to vices. It would do early-stage work to prepare viable projects that Europe, but growth has been less than expected because of the institutions such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and series of Balkan wars," says its former president, Kiro Gligorov. Development, IFC, USAID and others could finance, train and "We were not involved in any of these wars, but we are included educate local entrepreneurs, and contribute research and advoca- in an insecure region. Foreign investors simply see Macedonia as a cy on the key reforms that must be made in the business envi- risky country - they don't see it any other way." ronment to support small business growth. Tragically, he That effort is likely to get under way in earnest in 2000, pro- personifies those moting some of the key priorities laid out in the Stability Pact's risks. A calm and strategy documents on economic reconstruction and develop- - y soft-spoken 82- ment. Like anything IFC or any other international organiza- - year-old man, he tions do in the Balkans, it is a risk. But inaction and its appar- 9 --- commands much ent consequences are a far greater one. Do we dare leave things - _ respect and has in this troubled subcontinent as they are? Or, should we say, as 3S ' -- helped provide they have always been? Perhaps in the end those are the most K the leadership vital questions. There the one to consult is not Disraeli but Ivo that prompted Andric. An engrossing Yugoslav novelist, he was a most deserv- the World Bank ing winner of the 1961 Nobel Prize, yet, like so much of the ' - to write, "in a Balkans' savage beauty, remains largely unknown to outsiders. region where the His fictional world of a 19th century Bosnian monastic physi- r@, reverse is more cian offers up the perfect mirror for all who go to the region - !~t usually true, FYR claiming good intentions today: 250,000 Dead: Grafitti, Sarajevo. Macedonia has remained a Having observed the herbs, minerals and living beings around peaceful, democ- him, and their changes and movements, day after day, year after ratic, and multiethnic society and made substantial progress in year, Fra Luka became more and more convinced that in this structural transformation." But his face bears permanent scars from world as we see it only tWo things existed - growth and decay a 1995 car bombing that killed his chauffeur and very nearly - intimately and inseparably bound up with each other, eternal- claimed his life as well. The assassination attempt shocked his ly and everywhere in action... And the whole art of healing conl- countrymen and remains unsolved to this day, with ultranational- sisted in recognizing, seizing, and using the forces that surged in ist and Mafia elements from various countries often suspected. In a the direction of growth, "as a sailor makes use of the winds," painful piece of irony, it took place near the birthplace of the and in avoiding and removing the forces that worked for decay. Macedonian capital's most famous native daughter, Mother Teresa. Wherever a man succeeded in catching hold of the forces of > ringing back the Balkans will be anything but easy. It growth, he recovered and sailed on; where he failed to do it, he 3 cannot be done without building stronger national sank, quite simply and without appeal. And in the great and _) economies that will reduce unemployment and under- invisible account book of growth and decay one force was can-ied mine the base for the racism, corruption, and organized crime from one side of the ledger to another. that are so rampant in many of these countries today. All sides -Bosnian Chronicle, 1945.- agree on two things: the private sector must take the lead, since Impact cFall 1999, Vol. 3, No.4 Infrastructure ;- / /~~~~~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~, L r 71 ml ,. w Jr -34Slit"M- -- _~-- - :_, V - d - 1 ^ I Rob Wright IFC Corporate Relations U Budapest I ^ - -- Cleaner air ... less waste of energy ... more comfortable . buildings. r It is a combination that everyone in this part of the world seems to want, and AU one that can be reached. But financing all the neces- sary work is notoriously tough to achieve in today's volatile conditions. standoff. The goal: making conservation tion of the 1950s, when Moscow's cen- The teason is simple. Although not upgrades affordable to those who need tral planners built many of the grotesque overly expensive, energy efficiency them most. cinderblock office and apartment build- enhancements are still often beyond the ings that mar so much of the former reach of this region's cash-strapped utili- Stalin's Ghosts Eastern bloc. For energy supply they usu- ties and state industries, who usually The effort involves shoring up Hungary's ally took the cheapest solution: "district cannot get flexible-enough lending shoddy Communist-era equipment that heating," a one-size-fits-all approach terms from local banks. But by partner- wastes fuel left and right, making peo- that forces all buildings in a given area ing with a world leader in energy effi- ple's energy bills up to three times as to accept uniform temperature levels and ciency technology, US-based Honeywell high as in the European Union. The provides none with the thermostats Inc., IFC is doing its best to break the problem dates to the rapid industrializa- needed to adjust them. i-L'1 | Impact * Fall 1999, Vol. 3, No. 4 inefficiency can controls giant whose engineers invented -/ '1 /make them grow the thermostat in 1885. Honeywell has a -a ,, K' K' Kt f' K > j' ,7 «j unbearably hot, the full package of goods and services for ,1 /!l (/<2 / // > ,S/ : A often causing peo- upgrades to offer inefficient utilities, but >7 / ple to throw win- like its competitors has had to struggle to * .-, dows open for find a way to make it affordable locally. _ _ | 1lR ie v relief in the dead ;lM jM _ of winter. The The company started with straightfor- t iii =. _ . _= utilities that sup- ward selling of energy efficiency equip- I _l ply them have ment, but found the market surprisingly - caused some of slim. Initial successes in the Czech the world's worst Republic, for example, faltered when air pollution and that country's demand dried up with the have also dragged economic downturn that began in 1997. ffi |\l ~ - | down local So Honeywell has been working ever || LI^L * economies by since on a different model -creating a j TI! . - wasting foreign network of indepcndcnt energy service l-i * - s . - exchange on companies (ESCOs) offering Central unnecessary fuel and Eastern European firms not just the i M . imports. It's a lose- technology and management assistance _ -t7 - lose situation. they need, but also the financing that makes the upgrades possible. w * The result is a ;: . . j w w - ) > huge demand for "Rather than be a simple equipment sup- , rn 5efficiency plier, we wanted to be a total solution r . JAI ~F--X1 <-a; r _ I upgrades. provider, but we couldn't find any financ- V;aaeJ1y II , | Western compa- ing," recalls Elemer Illes of Honeywell. rt 5ww tr L nies sense a "The need to offer our customers an A * 4! e Fe4 | potential $2 bil- innovative third-party financing structure .. .+-; * - n lion market in completely drives our business." 't';, >w ' - '__ _ Hungary alone, but can only His firm was understandably cautious install their tech- about investing too heavily in startup nology if some- ESCOs solely on its own, and needed to - - - -- - -~- one pays their share the risk with others before going bills, and have ahead. When purely commercial found the region- investors declined, it found a willing al financing partner in IFC, which matched the crunch to be European Bank for Reconstruction and quite the obsta- Development's $2.6 million to help cle. Since many launch a new Hungarian joint venture Whandieahis approahe barts workd Welln of the potential clients are small district ESCO run out of Honeywell's Budapest Scande,inavhia ind otr parelts ofWetn po heating companies in local municipali- office. The investment stemmed from a Ere,signe thiregtion stremsulThe inapor ties with little to spend, much of the relationship with Honeywell that had sgne heatigy losystems.t They cased ove work remains undone 10 years after the been developed in the Environmental huge energy losses that grew worse over Berlin Wall came down. The situation Projects Unit, IFC's incubator for new tiumbled them ahre'stowned u tderilsties is even worse in the poorer countries to ventures that have significant environ- the East. mental benefits. Since such transactions Nevertheless, thermostatless homes often involve longer gestation periods remain common: an estimated 185 mil- leaion pemmoplv in districated home- Taking a Chance and smaller deal size than typical IFC lion people live in district-heated homes One partner IFC has turned to in an investments, they require special nurtur- in Central and Eastern Europe. Their effort to help is Honeywell, an industrial ing in the early phases before being Impact * Fall 1999, Vol. 3, No. 4 7 7 _,7s I tUrnd eovcr to the2 inwin- >tre1-C'; illnCSx11CMnt Unlith -in thiS cn-c, IFiR xvwr L)ept rtmrnt. Off and Running - 111i~tc;J I 4 requitrinl, ctjII tonllcrl-s to 1' iv till, tront lttrur3g 1 i|i CL[ttillrt thilr best w ithl ' J lociil bn aLsx ibfru the. i E>SC() iYn etticiencv\ L,1>r;l.IJI 01 tf1e-t0h'-sexVr1A v'telir b , lIt\ctt-lii _ It, pIIrmIeJ $ 10.6 milli, ,n cqulitv conltomrrblyl wNitlh --r -_ - ~ll iiiiti)Mtl Jeb1 nur HtimlL;ir\'.s Lir.getst timm i]ti;l -\-;' i-sittiltin, C)Tf' F;ink. Thlii t strlCturte I clicnts tO stretch out tlc e Cst Ot il)aStIAIlitl) LIU l) tth93 IllilliOtl t (dt edrer(x-ear for next 10 years - Planned equity: $10.6 million with: * Investors: Honeywell (43%) - . Municipal district heating companies IFC (24%) .- * State-owned enterprises EBRD (24%) OTP Bank (9%) Benefits: Conservation measures bring - U Aes; tI app.uximately ,50 milon rapid reductions in fuel expenses; ik debt f-* OiP am 1$ years1 energy savings allow contracts to pay y for LlImse8ves *j Impact Fall 1999. Vol. 3. No 4 pumps, and thermostats from Honeywell expects to sign up about 30 companies, targeted market - one the Honeywell and other manufacturers - equipment enough for annual revenues of about affiliate believes has grown by a factor of they then have the option of purchasing at $15 million. And while it faces compe- 10 through the new affordable financing a discount upon lease expiration and keep tition from an affiliate of France's structure. running for another 12 years or more. Vivendi and others in the same market, Experience from other countries shows the Honeywell ESCO believes its state- The Hungary project is just one use of a that the resulting energy savings should of-the-art equipment, quick payback, $25 million pool of equity IFC has ear- pay for themselves during the leasing peri- and affordable financing should soon marked for investment in new od, giving the utilities opportunities to give it a competitive edge. Honeywell ESCOs alongside a like reduce their energy costs by 20% or more amount from the EBRD. A similar start- while also significantly cutting emissions The company's success, however, will up also exists in Poland. Now that the both of local air pollution and greenhouse depend largely on its ability to assess the initial model has been drawn, discus- gases that contribute to global warming. creditworthiness of the municipal utilities sions are also under way about taking it That should be good news for everyone, it is financing. So having OTP Bank as a to higher-risk markets such as Bulgaria, but especially the end-users: hospitals, partner is a key step. OTP is the primary Uzbekistan, and China, where the need schools and municipal office buildings as lender to the country's local governments, for energy efficiency is even greater. If well as apartment dwellers across Hungary. carrying a 22 billion forint ($100 million) the promising start in Hungary spreads municipal portfolio that has a low 1% to other parts of the world, the payoff Since opening for business in mid-1999, default rate. It can no doubt assess munic- would be big indeed. U the Hungarian ESCO has signed con- ipal credit risk as well as anyone. So far, tracts with two local utilities and the all signs indicate that the new ESCO state railroad. In time the ESCO should have no difficulty reaching the iN G IT' F F What It Means L Flexible financing terms that allow Hungarian municipalities, hospitals, universities, etc., to receive energy efficiency upgrades they otherwise could not afford *20-30% reduction in local air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions I mA- business -model that could be rolled out in higher-risk _ co.untries6where the need is even -greater r1 -, Financial Markets Ci aC hg e s said Javed Hamid, director of IFC's East Asia-Pacific Department. T h e:e * * 0 Application of international standards L oand practices is especially needed now that China is poised to enter the WTO, opening its banks up to fierce competi- : jb~i ff b _tion from foreign rivals. "That's why the Chinese government has fully endorsed Philip Segal IFC's equity participation in BOS," Hamid said. "They have seen IFC's track Shanghai \ record in China and believe we can One thing is clear f1s i1 5, ' make meaningful contribut" ns to their about China's immi- ongoing effort of financial sector reform." nent entry into the i ongoing World Trade / ,;. . ' p IFC's decision to invest in BOS Organization (WTO): - * ro * stemmed from a close cooperation it places enormous between the two institutions that began pressure on the big ' jg ,| j fF> I - in 1995, even before the bank's estab- state banks that domi- l *- . lishment in December of that year. Early nate local lending on IFC organized a long-term, compre- and are burdened by !4:-since the company had just one assembly next year. t line it would never reach the economies Best of all for Hu was the level of service sof cale necessary to make a sufficient he says he received Before BOS lent to his So far so good, but BOS also faces signif- -ieturn on its capital. But it Li used her loan firm they made 3 careful appraisal as icant risks. One is that of growing so -----to build a second production line, BO5 well as follow-up risits. he said, unlike quickly in a country desperately short of ---sa d it would lend the other RMB 1 million the large banks th3t do not follow up after experienced bankers. The Asian finan- w,rR, .. th-e government had authorized they lend cial crisis served as a reminder that sim- ----~ ~~ ple increases in the size of a business are no proof of profitability or soundness. could go and borrow from one and then Perhaps Fu's biggest achievement, BOS's loan book was 27% bigger last another," said Shen Heliang, deputy branch though, was doing something managers year than the year before, something manager at one of BOS' largest outlets, the of state-owned lenders find almost that is of no use unless those loans will Wai Tan subbranch just off Shanghai's impossible: getting rid of bad bankers. be paid back. famed Bund, the winding road along the "During my administration more than city's riverfront which more than anything 10 branch managers were fired," he said. Karoly Attila Soos, a member of the board else resembles London's Embankment. Of the 99 former credit cooperatives at the European Bank for Reconstruction BOS inherited, 37 had their authoriza- and Development, notes that, following Today, though, every BOS loan goes into tion canceled and were closed. bank reform in Hungary and Estonia, lend- a single data bank, and all branches oper- ing did not expand but rather contracted. ate with the same credit policies. While But beyond setting up the rudiments of a "When you really make banks sensitive to this may sound like the most basic aspect proper bank, BOS had to figure out who the quality of firms, their first reaction is of credit control, it was not getting done its customers would be. ABN AMRO's not to lend to anyone because they never as recently as four years ago. consultants helped in showing BOS "the leamed to distinguish between good or bad Continued on page 32 :-"- \ Impacts Fall 1999, Vol.3, No.4 Brai nwaves t's - F t's hard not to think of the Old for justice and freedom- Testament prophets when encounter- and one who, unlike so ing Wole Soyinka. The wisdom in the many other politically - face, the rich cadences of the speaking tinged artists around the voice, the overpowering sense of presence world, has been willing to - they all combine to link the great put his life on the line in defense of the Wole Soyinka: Speaking to World Bank Nigerian author with others before him principles he represents. They are the audience, September 1999. who, in equally unjust times, also called principles of fundamental human decen- for justice to flow down like waters. True, cy, not those of any political ideology. confinement, The Man Died. It took its he comes from the Christian side of his title from his heart's reaction to news of country's Yoruba culture. But his words Turn back to 1967. Soyinka was then not the killing of a Nigerian journalist: "the would ring true in any tradition that only a respected playwright but one who man dies in all who keep silent in the clings to the innate worth of the human wrote impassioned articles in the local face of tyranny." A year later, the war in being, especially in the darkest hour. press demanding an end to his country's Biafra finally ended -but only after horrific Biafra war. For this he was arrested, causing a million deaths, many by star- In introducing the 1986 Nobel laureate's enduring 22 months of solitary confine- vation. September 27 Washington address, ment in a tiny, darkened cell. His captors "Culture, Democracy and Development," a intended to break his mental health, the Freed, he became chair of the top World Bank official called Soyinka perfect response to "those whose minds Department of Theatre Arts at Nigeria's one of the world's most courageous voices they fear," he later wrote. But the experi- University of Ibadan, but would soon be ence served only to forced into and out of exile for many sharpen his unsilence- years. In 1986 he won the world's highest Books and all form s of able voice. Poems he literary award, honored by the Swedish composed on secret Academy as "one of the finest poetical w riting have alw ays scraps of paper were playwrights that have written in English." smuggled out, finding But even while that aspect of his writing any readers. The act delved deep into the mysteries of mythol- been objects of terror to 1:ofwriting them, he ogy, he never stopped speaking up for the later said, "saved my fundamental rights of man, never lost his those who seek to sanity, and I think that central conviction: "For me, justice is the would be true of most first condition of humanity." suppress truth." writers." suppress truth. writers." Seven years after winning the Nobel I Upon release, he prize, Soyinka took part in a prodemoc- wrote a deeply mov- racy rally where the Nigerian govern- -W ole Soyinka, The Man Died (1972). ing prose account of ment shot and killed demonstrators. He - _ .=~*** ~ A 4. Impact * Fall 1999, Vol. 3, No. 4 returns often to the continent's most The city was Palermo, a Mafia stronghold. * -- "he Wr i populous country. The man some have of - Writing called a "one-man army" also earns Earlier this year Soyinka returned to rIdn~j D -- - Soyin&2 comparisons to another mighty pen, the Sicily's capital. What he found was R rlsrr fltSijJ0e5- Czech Republic's Vaclav Havel. nothing less than "a transformed humanity." The organized crime that What does such a man have to say to controlled local life had at last been put the World Bank Group? That "the real in its place. "The furtiveness, the sullen- fundamentals of development can never ness" that the city used to emanate be measured by a gross national prod- merely because of "the complacency of a uct, or by the number of barrels of oil a few" was now but a distant memory. The country exports." Never forget, he author now felt a sense of renewal warned, that development's ultimate rather than stagnation, a "culture of par- aim is "the liberation of the human ticipation" that "effused the people with soul" - freedom from poverty, corrup- a new elasticity in their limbs the F - t'.t, *^ "Ttion, and human rights abuses, with a minute they set out in the morning." At flowering of new job skills and "the last they were producing goods for their infinite matrix of possibilities and own self-betterment, not for embezzle- choices" that any local cultural tradi- ment by the thugs in power. Businesses tion provides. were opening; flower boxes were filled; monuments to past heroes were being To buttress his point, Soyinka recalled his rebuilt; artists were at work in newly was placed under surveillance and may first visit 15 years ago to an ancient foreign bustling cafes. have been a marked man. Within a few city that he immediately sensed had been months he was able to escape, but only robbed of its natural vitality. It was one "The boot had shifted to the other foot," narrowlyd- secreted out of the country whose atmosphere had become "something he said. "Now the fear was in the eyes of he would nor abandon by supporters after very anti-cultural, very anti-art," where the the unrepentant Mafioso." the government had confiscated his pass- streets' only laughter was "the laughter of a port. "We decided to wait until the last slave eager to please his master." With a His point: that precisely these dynamics, possible moment, until there was no criminal elite holding unchecked power, have also occurred in the Uganda of Idi doubt at all in our minds what the junta the city tragically became known more for Amin and the Nligeria of Abacha. hadl in store for me," he has said. As violence than anything else. Once-proud Anywhere a nation's soul can be held Nigeria's leaders then descended further churches, theaters, and public squares fell back by "the resolute conspiracies of a into tyranny, corruption, and murder he into disrepair, tarnished as badly as the few, so long as they are organized and was forced tO remain in exile, speaking local economy. The people survived. But sufficiently ruthless." And anywhere they out elsewhere in Africa while producing a they were afraid to live, are defeated, it can flourish again. jeremiad entitled The Open Sore of a Continent. A New Era: The most vocal foe of Nigeria's former leade's, Soyinka proudly attended this year's World Bank/lMF annual meetings v4th its new ones. Dawn finally came, following the June W 1998 death of Gen. Sani Abacha, a global pariah who had imprisoned the winner of the previous year's free and fair election. Before the end of 1998, the country had elected a new leader in retired Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, an internationally respected statesman who . . ty. Doors long shut to Soyinka suddenly opened. Though teaching at Emory -_ University in the United States, he now _ Impact a Fall 1999, Vol. 3, No.4 4 For all the horror he has witnessed, nation." Perhaps the outcome parallels cycle of decay" amid the slaughters from Soyinka remains resolutely optimistic. those of other injustices Soyinka cried Liberia to Somalia, from Rwanda to Sierra Nigerians, like the Sicilians before out against in different times -segrega- Leone, and beyond. But they also see them, are at last "starting to reconstitute tion in the United States, apartheid in another day coming, one whose conclud- themselves in their own authentic South Africa. The thought leaves this ing utterance brought his Washington image," in his view. For the first time in surveyor of the tragedy and comedy of audience to its feet in applause: a day recent memory, they see promise in the the human condition feeling good in his when Africa and its irrepressible smile will future. It is a future he foresaw in 1994, 65th year. be a "beacon of hope in the eyes and ears when he wrote with full confidence that of a new generation." - his countrymen were "attaining an The prophet's and the poet's eyes are unprecedented level of self-worth" that often one and the same. From the face of -Rob Wright ensured "Abacha is the last despot who Soyinka, they see a continent that may be will impose himself on the Nigerian the world's poorest, one with "a numbing Help for the New Nigeria X t a timne when Nigeria is taking its government, however, considers the airline "A key goal in privatizing the company is LX first true steps toward economnic a flagship for the country and sees its suc- bringing cheaper water to at least 80% of eform, it has turned to IFC for help cessful privatization as a cornerstone of the population," said IFC's Tony Clamp. in privatizing two major public services dev- Nigeria's economic recovery program. "That would probably require more than a astated by decades of corruption, ri kni.ri s. -' billion dollars spent on improving capacity ment, and debt under a military dictatorship. New investment in the airline would lead over 20 years, largely financed by tariffs IFC has agreed to help broker the revival of to both greater domestic service for generated by the expanded system. But it both N i L r i, S almost defunct national airline N ia r i .ir v and new lucrative routes between would be money well spent. The availability and the Ailing v. itc r system in the State of Europe and the United States and Nigeria, of adequate and reliable water services is Lagos. They are among the first of hundreds which as Africa's most populous nation is a critical to the health of the population - of privatizations planned by the country's new desirable destination for foreign carriers and waterborne diseases are the most common democratically elected government, led by could be an important regional hub. The illness in Lagos - as well as the commer- President 01LseLTMOn (basanjo. privatization process will initially involve cial, industrial, and agricultural sectors of finding a strategic partner outside of the the state's economy." IFC's involvement is expected to lend credi- country that would own a minority equity bility and transparency to the sale of the interest in the company but control its Portier said that although there are risks to two assets. The work will include indepen- operations through a long-term manage- investors in a country where the political dent assessments, recommendations of mar- ment contract. Selling price and other situation remains complex and fragile, "if ket strategies, preparation of documents, details are still to be worked out. the Nigerians play it right this could and making sure that proper bidding become the powerhouse of Africa." The pri- processes are used to choose ultimate win- The Lagos Water Corporation is equally in vatization effort supports the vision of ners, all within the next 18 months to two need of a shake-up. Today it serves only a World Bank/IFC President James D. years, said IFC's Bernard Portier. third of the estimated 13.2 million people Wolfensohn, who said on an October visit in Lagos, the economic heart of Nigeria, to Nigeria that the World Bank Group can The potential benefits of the pr, iec - to carrying less than half its capacity of 148 help the country generate jobs, tackle investors and Nigeria's population could be million gallons per day. That forces the poverty, and deal with its crushing $30 bil- substantial, people it does not reach, especially the lion debt, but only if the government under poorest among the population, to depend President Obasanjo is committed to politi- Nigeria Airways, once one of the busiest air- instead on costly water bought from street cal change and an end to corruption. U lines in Africa with 30 aircraft, has declined vendors and water tankers. Poor metering steadily due to poor management and is near and management and interruptions in ser- - Mary Gooderham bankruptcy today, operating just one air- vice also lead to an abysmal collection plane, mostly for domestic flights. The new rate of just 10%. Impact * Fall 1999, Vol. 3, No. 4 China's Changes securities rose by RMB 335 million ($40.;9 and plan to continue the technical assis- million) and was subject to tax, unlike the tance program for a few more years, with a year before, but that is still not a full expla- more intensive training focus on credit companies," he said on a recent visit to nation. Interest income was hard hit by the and risk management skills." Hong Kong. BOS may have found a lot of lowering of interest rates and lending good credits waiting to be funded, or it spreads by the government several times Compared with the problematic state- could simply be rushing to lend all the during the course of last year. Nevertheless, owned banking sector, and indeed a lot of money pouring into its branches, attracted while interest income was down, interest already listed Chinese companies, BOS by good service. expenses did not fall proportionately. The has made a promising start. In BOS, China report should explain this in greater detail, appears to have what it has lacked for 50 While BOS appears far from reckless, its years: a genuine homegrown bank in its annual report gives reason for some con- "Now that IFC has become a shareholder, financial capital of Shanghai operating cem: take last year's pretax operating prof- we will definitely require the bank to use largely on commercial principles.E it, the lowest since 1995, or its operating higher standards of disclosure," said profit, which plunged from RMB 845 mil- Jiansheng Wang, IFC's investment officer i Philip Segal is the Hong Kong lion ($103 million) in 1997 to just RMB on the transaction. "And we will be close- correspondent of the 57 million ($7 million). While the bank's ty involved with the bank in other ways, International Herald Tribune. doubling of provisions against bad debts by including having a former managing direc- RMB 100 million ($12.2 million) is good tor of JP Morgan represent us on the news, there is still a gap the report does not board. We have also agreed with BOS' explain. Interest income from govemment management on a set of operating policies Vietnam: Bank and Trust R unning a private bank is no small program that links ACB with Far East Bank Under terms of the program, ACB pays challenge in a Communist country and Trust Company (FEB) of the most of its own expenses, with the IFC- with no formal banking education Philippines. Recently honored by the Asian administered budget covering the time and and a culture where most people distrust Bankers Association, the partnership is travel of the FEB trainers. Since beginning banks so much that they hoard their savings emerging as a model for other such collabo- in March 1998, it has offered 30 classes on at home. Despite the fact that it was ration in Vietnam and elsewhere in the topics ranging from credit and risk manage- Vietnam's best capitalized and most success- developing world. ment to trust banking and project finance ful private bank, as recently as two years to about 480 ACB participants. Another six ago Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) had no "It's very important to have a healthy finan- ACB employees have also completed cial sector, but you cannot get it overnight. internships in Manila. In April the twin- You have to go step by step," said Jean- ning program won the "1999 Asian Marie Masse, who oversees the program at Banking Award" in the human resource IFC. development category because of its innova- tive approach in leveraging FEB personnel Masse said ACB, based in Ho Chi Minh and training to help the smaller bank. - * v ^ j*>t 5 City, was chosen for the $250,000 Japanese- funded technical assistance program because Having a trusted, well-functioning financial _W ~~ .. E ! 37 of its importance in Vietnam (seven branches sector is critical to Vietnam's economy, and h+r s R i F, | rand $100 million in assets), 30% foreign giving a leading private bank access to best rF , faownership (Jardine Fleming of Hong Kong, intemational practices is a good way to cre- _ ,..~ i rj ,,LG Merchant Bank of Korea, and two ate models for others to duplicate. Fun with Finance: Vietnamese bankers Wester-managed Vietnam investment learn the fine points in If C-arranged funds), and a willingness to open its books to "If you have an efficient banking system, learn in e pn iFa. audits up to international standards. FEB, people will open a bank account, put which is in the process of becoming the money into the account, and have access to operational manuals, little staff training and largest bank in the Philippines after its recent additional banking services, and the bank lacked the transparency so critical to an acquisition by the Bank of the Philippine will have access to savings and make loans efficient financial institution. Islands, was seen as an excellent partner to both corporations and individuals," because it operates in Vietnam and, like all Masse said.E But today the picture is very much differ- Philippine banks, uses the language of inter- ent, thanks to an IFC-arranged training national finance, English. Mary Gooderham 1 * Africa Infrastructure Fund Launched In one of the clearest signs yet that Africa is open for business, IFC has launched a $500 million investment vehicle to help fix the region's crum- bling infrastructure. The 10-year Africa Infrastructure Fund (AIF), the largest single pool of equity capital ever established for the continent, is intended not only to target a sector critical to the economic and social progress of the continent but also send a powerful message of confidence about investment opportunities there. Since its "lost decade" of the 1980s, Africa has experienced a sea change in attitude towards privatization. But even though some governments have made progress in reforming their economies to attract private capital, the region's infrastructure remains a significant obstacle to develop- ment. In 1996 Africa had only 14 telephone lines per thousand people, compared with 41 per thousand in East Asia and the Pacific and 102 per thousand in Latin America and the Caribbean. Just 45% of the African population had access to safe water, compared with 84% in East Asia and the Pacific and 73% in Latin America and the Caribbean. Nevertheless, the improving economic, political, and regulatory environment in Africa has spurred investor demand for the creation of well-structured, reputable funds, with many saying it makes sense to use the capital first to target infrastructure systems and services. "At the end of the day, if you can't use a phone in a country, it's unlikely you'll be investing there or your investment will pan out successfully," said IFC's Papa Ndiaye. Ndiaye conceded that the AIF is ambitious, both in size and in the fact that it seeks to break new ground in an area just getting started as an investment target. "But we think this is Africa's turn, and someone has to take the first step in a bold type of initiative for Africa to avoid being shunted on the sidelines of global markets," he said. Former South African President Nelson Mandela will chair the fund's advisory committee. Both IFC and American International Group, a large US insurance and investment company, will contribute $75 million toward it; other partners include the African Development Bank, international investor Sheikh Mohammed Al-Amoudi, and a fund established by Rand Merchant Bank Asset Management of South Africa. The $500 million is expected to leverage up to $2.5 billion for infrastructure projects across the continent. The AIF will be overseen by Emerging Markets Partnership, a Washington-based fund management company that also has other similar funds for Asia and Latin America. -Mary Gooderham Sale of a Data Base IFC has agreed to sell its Emerging Markets Data Base (EMDB) and the rights to IFC's well-known indexes for emerging stock markets to a global industry leader better equipped to steer the combined product to its full potential. IFC began the data base in 1981, when few portfolio investors were even aware of developing countries, and its creation of stock market indexes did much to promote these markets in the following years. Now the flagship service is being passed on to Standard & Poor's, the largest provider of index products in the world, including the S&P 500 in the United States and similar offerings for Europe, Canada, Japan, and others. The sale, quietly in the works for two years, allows S&P to add IFC's information on 2,200 companies in 54 markets to its own global index business, thus giving potential new investors the data they need when considering taking the plunge. The move responds to the needs of asset managers, who used to see emerging markets as a special breed but increasingly prefer to see them alongside developed markets in a broader "international" category, with performance information included in global benchmark indices such as S&P's. Financially speaking, EMDB was at best a break-even proposition in IFC's hands. But commercial index companies such as S&P make money by licensing and spinning off data for other purposes, such as derivatives, which is something IFC would not do. And while the EMDB is highly suc- cessful from many perspectives, without inclusion in a global index "it is a wasting asset - it needs a professional financial information services company to maximize the value to end users and make the product all it can be," EMDB's manager Peter Wall said. The sale of EMDB and the IFC indexes is consistent with IFC's approach of targeting promising products and regions when they cannot attract sufficient market interest, then moving on when private capital moves in. All the early signs indicate that under S&P the data base will become a more powerful tool in attracting capital to developing country markets. IFC will stay involved with the indexes as part of an advisory panel and help S&P develop new emerging markets information services. Parting is sweet sorrow: Wall said that, while there is change ahead, many in his unit feel rather like proud parents today, since "after 18 years we're seeing our child go on in life." -Mary Gooderham Impact * Fall 1999, Vol. 3, No. 4 IFC International Finance Corporation 2121 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20433 USA www. ifc.org IFC is a member of the World Bank Group supporting private sector development in member countries through investment, advisory services, and technical assistance. Our Mission To promote private sector investment in developing countries, which will reduce poverty and improve people's lives.