Asset AllocationOctober 9, 2014

The World Bank's $1 Trillion Infrastructure Plan

BlackRock, la Caisse, SWFs, and governments have signed up to the Global Infrastructure Facility.

Reported by Featured Author

The World Bank Group has announced a program to give global institutional investors access to the $1 trillion in infrastructure projects needed in developing nations through 2020.

The Global Infrastructure Facility (GIF) will be officially launched later this year “to deliver complex public-private infrastructure in low and middle-income countries,” with a focus on “climate-friendly” and trade-oriented investments, the international organization said.

“We have several trillions of dollars in assets represented today looking for long-term, sustainable, and stable investments,” said World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim. “The real challenge is not a matter of money but a lack of bankable projects—a sufficient supply of commercially viable and sustainable infrastructure investments.”

According to the World Bank, private infrastructure investments in emerging markets and developing countries fell to $150 billion last year from $186 billion in 2012.

The initiative earned the support of major asset management and private equity firms, pension funds, banks, and governments from around the world. GIF’s partners include BlackRock, Citibank, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the governments of Canada, Australia, Japan, and Singapore, and the European Investment Bank (EIB).

GIF “will also strengthen market investment in key infrastructure sectors and countries where such resources are lacking,” according Werner Hoyer, the president of EIB. “What we need are viable, bankable, and innovative projects which provide added value for investment and modernizing the economy.”

World Bank CFO Bertrand Badre said the project would “focus on the quality of infrastructure” rather than merely upping the amount invested.

The group said several projects had already begun.