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Showing posts with the label ISLANDS BUSINESS

IFC'S US$140M SPLASH IN BSP, IS THERE A CONFLICT OF INTEREST?

By: Dionisia Tabureguci of ISLAND BUSINESS It wasn’t too long ago that a partnership between the World Bank and its sister organisation the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in the deregulation of the telecommunications sector in some countries in the region was frowned upon. Critics called it a ‘conflict of interest’. Through multi-million dollar loans, the IFC—the World Bank’s private sector financing arm—was funding the Pacific expansion of Irish-owned Digicel. At the same time, the World Bank was offering policy and technical assistance to governments in the region interested in opening up their telecommunications market. Words like “double standard” and “inappropriate” were used to describe their involvement in the Pacific’s telecommunication market. The World Bank’s Country Director for Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and the Pacific at the time, Nigel Roberts, had to defend the organisations’ involvements as independent of each other. “The process we’re involved in on the Wo

IFC'S US$140M SPLASH IN BSP, IS THERE A CONFLICT OF INTEREST?

By: Dionisia Tabureguci of ISLAND BUSINESS It wasn’t too long ago that a partnership between the World Bank and its sister organisation the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in the deregulation of the telecommunications sector in some countries in the region was frowned upon. Critics called it a ‘conflict of interest’. Through multi-million dollar loans, the IFC—the World Bank’s private sector financing arm—was funding the Pacific expansion of Irish-owned Digicel. At the same time, the World Bank was offering policy and technical assistance to governments in the region interested in opening up their telecommunications market. Words like “double standard” and “inappropriate” were used to describe their involvement in the Pacific’s telecommunication market. The World Bank’s Country Director for Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and the Pacific at the time, Nigel Roberts, had to defend the organisations’ involvements as independent of each other. “The process we’re involved in on the