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Sunil Bharti Mittal joins World Bank's pvt sector investment lab initiative
The World Bank Group on Thursday announced the launch of the next phase of PSIL. This will expand the Lab's membership to include industry leaders with experience generating jobs in developing economies, aligning directly with the Bank's sharpened focus on job creation as a core driver of development.
'With the expanded membership, we are mainstreaming this work across our operations and tying it directly to the jobs agenda that is driving our strategy,' said World Bank Group President Ajay Banga.
Besides Mittal, other new members of the Lab include Aliko Dangote, president and chief executive officer of the Nigerian industrial conglomerate Dangote Group; Mark Hoplamazian, president and chief executive officer of Hyatt Hotels Corporation; and Bill Anderson, chief executive officer of German pharmaceutical and biotechnology major Bayer AG. The membership of the Lab has been increased to include private sector leaders in sectors critical to job creation—such as infrastructure and energy, agribusiness, healthcare, tourism, and manufacturing.
'The World Bank Group is leading the way with initiatives to grow economies and create opportunities in emerging markets around the globe. I have seen firsthand the power of connectivity to transform lives by creating opportunities for businesses to grow and communities to thrive. I hope that the successes of the telecommunications sector will be valuable as PSIL embarks on the next stage of its important work,' said Sunil Bharti Mittal, chair, Bharti Enterprises.
Over the past 18 months, the Lab has brought together leaders from global financial institutions to identify the most pressing barriers to private sector investment in developing countries—and to test actionable solutions. That work has now been consolidated into five priority focus areas that are being integrated across Bank Group operations.
These include regulatory and policy certainty—supporting governments in creating stable regulatory frameworks, such as the effort to connect 300 million people in Africa to electricity, which relies on upfront policy clarity to attract long-term capital—and political risk insurance, such as streamlined guarantee instruments that have led to an increase in issuance compared to last year, enhancing investor confidence and helping the Bank meet its goal of tripling the use of guarantees by 2030.
Reducing foreign exchange risks by scaling local currency financing to deepen domestic capital markets is also a focus area. Last year, IFC committed one-third of its long-term financing in local currency—with a goal of reaching 40 per cent by 2030. The focus on 'junior equity capital' has led to the launch of the Frontier Opportunities Fund to absorb early-stage risk.
Finally, securitisation aims to collaborate with institutions such as S&P and BlackRock to standardise and securitise portfolios, unlocking capital from pension funds, insurers, and sovereign wealth funds.
The Lab's founding members included senior executives from AXA, BlackRock, HSBC, Macquarie, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Ninety One, Ping An Group, Royal Philips, Standard Bank, Standard Chartered, Sustainable Energy for All, Tata Sons, Temasek, and Three Cairns Group. PSIL is chaired by Shriti Vadera, chair of Prudential plc.
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