Climate finance, infrastructure, agriculture, and micro and smaller businesses in Central Asia were just some of the areas that benefited from strong funding from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, over the last fiscal year. The funds, coupled with advisory support, are helping to increase private sector participation, create jobs, boost financial inclusion, bolster infrastructure, and support the region’s green transition.
IFC, the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets, committed $1.04 billion in Central Asia in fiscal year 2024, which started on July 1, 2023, and ended on June 30, 2024. This comprised over $400 million in long-term financing from IFC’s own account, $600 million in mobilization, and $35 million in short-term trade and supply-chain finance to facilitate trade flows. That work came alongside advisory engagements to boost financial inclusion, structure groundbreaking public-private partnership (PPP) projects, and promote the climate agenda and gender diversity.
Priority sectors included finance, capital markets, renewable energy, agriculture, and infrastructure. Over the last fiscal year, IFC-supported projects have created approximately 35,000 jobs, including employment for more than 13,000 women across the region.
Strengthening local financial markets remains a key objective. IFC provided 10 financial institutions in Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan with investments totaling $228 million, with up to half earmarked for women entrepreneurs and rural enterprises. IFC also supported local financial institutions in growing their micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) business, advancing climate finance and the digital transformation, and issuing the first ever sustainability, social, and green bonds.
To support the green transition and climate action in Uzbekistan, IFC, together with the World Bank, financed a new solar plant with the country’s first battery energy storage system, which is expected to provide electricity access to approximately 75,000 households in the Bukhara region. In Tajikistan, an IDA country, IFC invested in the country’s first green bond, issued by Eskhata Bank, which will support climate-smart projects and MSMEs undertaking environmental projects.
In Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic, in addition to investments to increase financial inclusion, IFC has been evaluating new advisory and investment opportunities, including PPPs in areas such as drinking water supply, renewable energy (including geothermal solutions for heating and cooling), railway projects as part of the Middle Corridor, and the first municipal green bonds in Central Asia. IFC is also supporting Kazakhstan’s accelerated methane mitigation efforts in line with the Global Methane Pledge.
Wiebke Schloemer, IFC’s Director for Türkiye and Central Asia, said the projects highlighted IFC’s commitment to the region. “Over the past 20 years, the region has seen substantial development, with an average annual growth rate of 6.2 percent,” she said.
“To continue this growth, Central Asia must leverage the green transition to boost private investment, further strengthen connectivity, and reduce resource dependency. IFC aims to address these goals and continue to deliver solutions where we are needed most—from increasing access to finance for farmers and women entrepreneurs to create jobs, to continuing to help countries transition to net zero.”
About IFC
IFC — a member of the World Bank Group — is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. We work in more than 100 countries, using our capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities in developing countries. In fiscal year 2024, IFC committed a record $56 billion to private companies and financial institutions in developing countries, leveraging private sector solutions and mobilizing private capital to create a world free of poverty on a livable planet. ///IFC, 31 October 2024