1990s - RISING GLOBAL INFLUENCE
Decade 4
1990s — Rising Global Influence
As the world grew increasingly open to market-based solutions, IFC’s influence grew. We pushed the frontiers of privatization, and developed the most comprehensive framework then in existence to manage projects’ environmental and social risks.
1990
IFC’s first private-sector-led power project: the $41 million gas-fired Navotas plant in the Philippines.
1991
IFC helps Poland design its privatization program and launches the IPO of Swarzedzkie Fabryki Mebli, the first widely distributed retail IPO in post-communist Eastern Europe.
1992
$1 billion capital increase greatly expands IFC’s financing capacity.
1992
IFC coins the term frontier markets.
1992
IFC leads one of Russia’s first privatization programs, auctioning 2,000 businesses in Nizhny Novgorod.
1996
First investment in microfinance: a $3 million stake in the ProFund vehicle launched by four NGOs. By 2016, IFC is the world’s largest investor in microfinance, with a portfolio of more than $2 billion.
1996
In one of its first investments in a state affected by fragility and conflict, IFC helps launch Bosnia’s microfinance pioneer (now ProCredit Bank), less than a year after the signing of the Dayton Accords.
1998
IFC adopts new environmental and social review procedures and safeguard policies.
1998
Responding to the Asian financial crisis, IFC begins a five-year, nearly $1 billion countercyclical investment/advisory package to strengthen clients in Korea.
| GLOBAL CONTEXT |
| 1990: Nelson Mandela freed in South Africa 1991: Fall of the Soviet Union 1991: India launches market-based reforms 1993: European Union created 1994: NAFTA takes effect, increasing US-Mexican-Canadian trade 1995: UN World Conference on Women sets global agenda for gender equality 1995: Widespread commercial use of the Internet begins 1997: Asian financial crisis 1998: Russian financial crisis 1998: Google founded 1999: Anti-globalization protests at WTO meeting in Seattle |
