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Timothy Harwood

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Friday, September 11, 2009

OPIC Selects Emerging Markets Consulting as Loan Originator in Enterprise Development Network

WASHINGTON, D.C. –The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) has selected Emerging Markets Consulting, an international development consulting firm focusing on bilateral trade and social relationships between the U.S. and the Kingdom of Morocco, to serve as a Loan Originator for a new alliance with the private sector designed to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) expanding into emerging markets overseas.

The alliance, the Enterprise Development Network (EDN), will greatly expand the ability of OPIC – the U.S. government agency charged with facilitating U.S. private sector investment in emerging markets – to provide financing to SMEs doing business in developing countries.

Through the support of financial institutions, business consultants, associations, law firms and regional investment promotion agencies, EDN is designed to enhance SME access to OPIC products and services. By empowering such private sector service providers, the network will result in more efficient, cost-effective delivery of services to American businesses.

Emerging Markets Consulting (EMC) is an international development consulting firm that assists both public institutions and U.S. small and medium enterprises in locating, understanding, and seizing opportunities, in all socio-economic sectors of global emerging markets, with an emphasis on the improvement of bilateral trade and social relationships between the U.S. and the Kingdom of Morocco. EMC’s goal is to leverage and be actively involved in available U.S. government grant-funded resources in Morocco, such as technical assistance and definitional missions; and to create business opportunities for U.S. small and medium enterprises, that will have positive developmental and environmental impacts on the host country society. Visit EMC on the web at www.emergingco.com.

OPIC is the U.S. Government’s development finance institution. It mobilizes private capital to help solve critical development challenges and in doing so, advances U.S. foreign policy. Because OPIC works with the U.S. private sector, it helps U.S. businesses gain footholds in emerging markets catalyzing revenues, jobs and growth opportunities both at home and abroad. OPIC achieves its mission by providing investors with financing, guarantees, political risk insurance, and support for private equity investment funds.

Established as an agency of the U.S. Government in 1971, OPIC operates on a self-sustaining basis at no net cost to American taxpayers. OPIC services are available for new and expanding business enterprises in more than 150 countries worldwide. To date, OPIC has supported nearly $200 billion of investment in over 4,000 projects, generated $74 billion in U.S. exports and supported more than 275,000 American jobs.