BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 1. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the world’s largest development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets, invested $1.04 billion in Central Asia for fiscal year 2024, which spanned from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, TurkicWorld reports via the IFC.
This included over $400 million in long-term financing from IFC's own account, $600 million through mobilization, and $35 million in short-term trade and supply-chain financing aimed at facilitating trade across the region.
IFC’s commitment supported a range of critical sectors such as finance, capital markets, renewable energy, agriculture, and infrastructure, with a focus on strengthening financial inclusion, advancing climate initiatives, and fostering gender diversity. These efforts contributed to the creation of around 35,000 jobs across Central Asia, including employment for more than 13,000 women.
Key priorities for IFC included bolstering local financial markets. Over the fiscal year, the institution provided $228 million in investments to 10 financial institutions in Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, with nearly half of these funds dedicated to empowering women entrepreneurs and rural enterprises. IFC also assisted financial institutions in expanding micro, small, and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) offerings, promoting climate finance and digital transformation, and facilitating the issuance of the region’s first sustainability, social, and green bonds.
In Uzbekistan, IFC joined forces with the World Bank to finance a solar plant equipped with the country’s first battery energy storage system. This project is set to provide electricity to approximately 75,000 households in the Bukhara region, supporting the nation’s green transition and climate goals. Meanwhile, in Tajikistan, an IDA country, IFC invested in Eskhata Bank’s issuance of the first green bond, which will finance climate-smart projects and environmentally focused MSMEs.
In Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic, IFC extended its impact through investment in financial inclusion and new advisory projects. It is currently exploring public-private partnerships (PPPs) in sectors such as drinking water supply, renewable energy solutions (including geothermal applications for heating and cooling), and railways that are part of the Middle Corridor. Additionally, IFC is working on Central Asia’s first municipal green bond in Kazakhstan and supporting the country's methane reduction efforts aligned with the Global Methane Pledge.
