AirAsia Bhd said on Sept 5 it has completed the loan mandating process to finance 33 out of 60 Airbus A320-200 aircraft to be purchased from Airbus SAS over the next four years, with a two-year delivery schedule for the 33 aircraft. These loans will be a mixture of Export Credit Agency (ECA) backed loans, pure commercial loans and Islamic loans. See the June 2005 What’s New for more on ECA support for air transport.

Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) has, at the behest of government of India, extended a ‘line of credit’ (LOC) of $15 million to the government of Equatorial Guinea under a Team-9 initiative. Team-9 is aimed at developing a special co-operation model between India and eight countries of West Africa (Burkina Faso, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Mali and Senegal). Under the Team-9 initiative, the Indian government provides LOCs through Exim Bank to the member countries to finance setting up of various projects by Indian companies in those countries. Exim Bank will reimburse 100 per cent of contract value to the Indian exporters, upfront upon the shipment of goods.

September 14, 2005 (Eurodad, Brussels) Some 57 non-governmental organizations world wide released today a statement challenging world leaders at the UN World Summit on their efforts to finance the Millennium Development Goals. The statement charges that “many governments are falsely inflating their aid figures by including risky commercial debt write-offs”. It urges leaders “to change the way they report aid statistics so that their citizens get a true picture”.

August 31, 2005 (World Resources Institute) A major Washington-based think tank is calling for greater local and democratic control over environmental resources as the most effective means to lift some two billion people out of rural poverty. The report calls for the mandatory adoption by all parties, such as multilateral agencies, export credit agencies (ECAs), and private banks and investors, of “free, prior, and informed consent” (FPIC) practices that would guarantee local communities a formal role.

Sept.5, 2005 (iSNet) The EU and China agreed on a Partnership on Climate Change as one of the major outcomes of the China-EU Summit. The Partnership will strengthen cooperation and dialogue on climate change and energy between the EU and China. These efforts will be strengthened through the involvement of the private sector, bilateral and multilateral financing instruments and export credit agencies

Op-ed by Peter Bosshard, International Rivers Network, The International Journal of Hydropower & Dams, Issue 3/2005: Bashing non-governmental organizations has become popular, but the stereotype of rich dogmatic NGOs does not explain why they enjoy strong popular support. It absolves dam builders from their own responsibilities, and from engaging in a dialogue with their critics. A global opinion poll recently stated that advocacy groups such as Amnesty International and Greenpeace enjoy the highest public trust among all institutions. Their credibility by far outstrips the credibility of private corporations. NGOs enjoy strong popular support because people trust they are less beholden to vested interests than the private sector, that they are closer to ground realities, and in a better position to address the world’s unresolved social and environmental problems.

August 25, 2005 (China Development Brief) A recent Asian Development Bank research report shows that energy efficiency improvements at existing power plants are a more cost-effective way of increasing supply than building new plants.

August 22, 2005 (Reuters) The SEC is investigating payments made by a construction consortium led by Halliburton Co. to determine whether any Nigerian officials were bribed to win the Bonny Island LNG contract which received extensive support from Ex-Im Bank, ECGD and other European ECAs

Sept.2, 2005 (Washington/PRNewswire) The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) today announced relief provisions for exporters and financial institutions located in those portions of Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama that have been declared federal disaster areas by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

OPIC Board Approves $150 Million to Support Trade Bank of Iraq