In June the Nordic Investment Bank unveiled its new strategy. The bank is a multilateral financial institution, owned by eight member countries, that finances private and public projects in and outside its member countries.
The new strategy focusing particularly on strengthening the bank’s presence in the Baltic Sea region, but that doesn’t mean that NIB is downgrading its activities in Asia; Communications Manager Jamima Löfström explains to ScandAsia:
“In 2005, NIB achieved its all-time highest level of disbursements in Asia and the Bank is determined to continue this development,” she says.
NIB has chosen two routes to strengthen its presence in Asia. Firstly he bank will seek to increase activities in countries, where NIB will become even more proactive in originating projects with a mutual interest.
“The “focus countries” are still to be determined. For the countries chosen the Bank will assign additional resources,” Jamima Löfström adds.
Environmental projects
The second route has its roots in NIB’s closer focus on financing environmental projects all over the world. This route is taken to help reduce emissions, which would otherwise have a negative impact on NIB’s member countries.
“The environmental projects in Asia will most likely be concentrated on renewable energy and introduction of modern production technologies,” Jamima Löfström says adding:
“NIB may also consider financing Asian private sector projects of environmental improvements in the areas of e.g. water supply and sewage treatment, energy, waste management.”
The increased activities aren’t going to change the setup of NIB’s Asian Representative Office in Singapore.
Focus on the Baltic Sea Region
Apart from Asia the Bank will focus particularly on strengthening the competitiveness of the economies and businesses in the Baltic Sea region as well as financing environmental projects.
“The guiding principle when renewing NIB’s strategic focus has been to support the economies and business climate of the Baltic Sea region. We see our role in the future as a “Baltic Sea bank”. With sharper focus we will further enhance our competence in the selected areas. This will increase our value added to our customers and reduce the risks of both the Bank and its customers,” President and CEO, Johnny Åkerholm, explained earlier in June.
Fact about the Nordic Investment Bank:
NIB is a multilateral financial institution owned by eight member countries: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden. The Bank finances private and public projects in and outside the member countries. NIB has the highest possible credit rating, with the leading rating agencies Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s.
In its 30 years of operation, the bank has signed 1,745 loan agreements with a total nominal value of EUR 26.3 billion. Of these loans, approximately 80% (in terms of value) have been signed with customers in the Bank’s member countries. 36% of the total loan amount has been allocated to manufacturing, 22% to the energy sector and 15% to transport and communications. Almost 80% of the loans have been agreed with borrowers in the private sector.
