Page 36 - IB September 2018 Edition

Indepth

From the Balkans, to the Pacific

in August, the international Finance Corporation (iFC) held two very So the innovative financial instruments that we now have allow us
public events in Fiji which signaled a new proactive approach in their to provide blended finance, which is priced below market rates or
work in Fiji. One was the launch of a new study it produced, funded commercial rates, to encourage private sector to invest. in a first of its
by the government of Australia, titled: From Farm to Tourist Table kind project in a particular sector, once we bring private sector to such
and the other was the launch of a new project to promote employer- a project using those de-risking instruments, we actually can develop
supported childcare in Fiji. a sector further, we actually can develop a pipeline of projects in the
The events were officially launched in Suva by one of iFC’s Vice sector and bring more private sector to participate. We actually have
president for Asia and the pacific, nena Stoiljkovic, who took up the a range of experiences like this in Africa where we worked on the first
role in January, after working in the iFC and its sister organisation of its kind ppp solar project in one country and we are now scaling
the World Bank for over 25 years. it across other countries and we are now trying to implement some
IB’s Dionisia Tabureguci caught up with Stoiljkovic during her stay of those solutions here in the pacific. That’s work in progress but we
in Suva where she shared a bit about the work iFC will be doing in have instruments and tools that we can use already in the pacific.
the pacific region.
IB: That hasn’t been done in the Pacific?
IB: Tell us a bit about your background experience
and how you expect to apply that in your work in the Stoiljkovic: not much.
Pacific region? We had a first facil-
ity of that nature
Stoiljkovic: i am from Serbia, a country in the Balkans. That by itself with the AnZ
is fragile and is a conflict affected country because of the civil war. i Bank where
left the country in 1995 and have worked for iFC for almost 25 years
now. Being from a developing country has helped me understand
development problems and development challenges in countries
where iFC works across the globe. So i could always relate to issues
of gender, infrastructure, issues of fragility and it has brought me to
the pacific, with some ideas of how we can help pacific countries
develop further. And the second thing i want to point out from my
background is the value of having worked across the business lines
of iFC. Most of us come from the investment backgrounds, which
teaches us how to structure transactions, how to identify profitable
projects with the private sector. i myself had the privilege to work
on advisory services. i was running all of iFC’s advisory services. i
also had the opportunity to work for the World Bank to understand
how the public sector works. As a vice president, i was running
their global practices. And then also some innovative financial
instruments to de-risk the private sector. So with a spectrum of
financial tools and with my origin from a developing country,
i believe that i can now use all of that to implement some
innovative solutions here in the pacific.

IB: Your background includes promoting de-
velopment finance. What is it and its relevance
in the Pacific?

Stoiljkovic: normally iFC finances private sector companies.
And as you know when private sector invests, private
sector wants profits, wants to make money, wants to
make their businesses profitable. What we have realised
is that in some countries, including in the pacific, not all
the projects can be immediately profitable and viable.

Nena Stoiljkovic, Vice President East Asia and Pacific at the Inter-
national Finance Corporation. Photo: IFC

36 Islands Business, September 2018