Introduction MEMBER COUNTRIES Argentina Austria Bahamas Barbados Belgium Belize Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia Costa Rica Denmark Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Finland France Germany Guatemala Guyana Haiti Honduras Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Mexico Netherlands Nicaragua Norway Panama Paraguay People’s Republic of China Peru Portugal Republic of Korea Spain Suriname Sweden Switzerland Trinidad and Tobago United States Uruguay Venezuela THE INTER-AMERICAN INVESTMENT CORPORATION (IIC) is a multilateral organization. It began operations in 1989 to promote the economic development of its Latin American and Caribbean member countries by financing private enterprises. To fulfill its mission, the IIC provides project financing in the form of direct loans and equity investments, lines of credit to local financial intermediaries, and investments in local and regional investment funds. It particularly targets small and medium-size companies that have difficulty obtaining financing from other sources on reasonable terms. In a sense, IIC finance is seed money. The Corporation serves as a catalyst for attracting other resources: additional financing, technology, and know-how. These resources are mobilized through cofinancing and syndication, supporting security underwritings, and identifying joint venture partners. Lending and investing require evaluation of project soundness and probability of success. In this preliminary evaluation process, the IIC advises clients on project design and financial engineering and helps them to structure their financial plan. To obtain IIC financing, projects must offer profitable investment opportunities. They must also further economic development in some way—by creating jobs, broadening capital ownership, generating net foreign currency income, facilitating the transfer of resources and technology, utilizing local resources, promoting local savings, or promoting the economic integration of Latin America and the Caribbean. Any environmentally sensitive project must include specific preventive or restorative measures. All the powers of the Corporation are vested in its Board of Governors. The IIC Board of Governors consists of a representative and an alternate from each member country. Voting power is proportional to each country’s paid-in shares. The Board of Governors appoints a Board of Executive Directors to which significant authority and powers are delegated. The Corporation is affiliated with the Inter-American Development Bank Group. The IIC is legally autonomous, and its resources and management are separate from those of the Inter-American Development Bank.