Overseas Investment The Overseas Private Investment Corporation's Investment Funds Program

The Overseas Private Investment Corporation is an independent, self-substaining U.S. government agency created in 1969 to assist U.S. investors overseas by providing political risk insurance, financing, and other investment services. The Overseas Private Investment Corporations investment funds program was created in 1987 and has committed 2.3 billion in financing loan guaranties since then to support 26 private equity funds currently operating in developing countries and emerging market economies. These funds aim to promote broad U.S. foreign policy and strategic goals by investing in countries or regions that are making the transition to market economies or are otherwise of foreign policy interest to the United States, such as the Balkans, the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union, and sub-Saharan Africa. According to agency officials, investment funds also serve as a catalyst for private sector development by providing incentives for investment in countries where U.S. investors might be unwilling or unable to invest without U.S. government support.