Publication:
IFC and the Slovak Republic, Partners in Private Sector Development

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (172.78 KB)
86 downloads
English Text (5.05 KB)
13 downloads
Published
2024-03-19
ISSN
Date
2024-03-19
Editor(s)
Abstract
IFC’s main government counterparts are the Ministry of Finance and the Slovak Export-Import Bank (Eximbank). In particular, the Ministry of Finance has been playing an active role in supporting the involvement of Slovak companies and technical experts in development through the launch of dedicated platforms that provide information on how to collaborate with IFC and, more broadly, with the World Bank Group. In addition, the Ministry of Finance established the Slovakia-IFC Partnership Trust Fund (SIPF) to support IFC’s advisory activities in manufacturing, agribusiness, information and clean environmental technologies, and energy and resource efficiency. The geographical priorities of the SIPF were the Western Balkans, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and Asia. Through the SIPF, the Slovak Republic provided over one million in support of IFC Advisory Services. The SIPF was closed after the funds were used.
Link to Data Set
Citation
International Finance Corporation. 2024. IFC and the Slovak Republic, Partners in Private Sector Development. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/41226 License: CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO .
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    IFC and Austria, Partners in Private Sector Development
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-09-01) International Finance Corporation
    Austria is a strong partner of IFC Advisory Services, especially in Europe and Central Asia (ECA). With the support of the Austrian Ministry of Finance, IFC has implemented successful projects to promote renewable energy generation and distribution, strengthen cleaner production, expand green finance and increase productivity in agribusiness. Austria has also supported programs aimed at improving the investment climate for private sector development. In FY19-23, Austria provided cumulative funding in support of IFC Advisory Services, most recently for the Austria-IFC Europe Climate Finance Program and the ECA Sustainable Upstream Infrastructure Platform.
  • Publication
    IFC and Canada, Partners in Private Sector Development
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-03-14) International Finance Corporation
    Canada has been an active member of the World Bank Group for over six decades through its thought leadership and financial support. Over the last ten years (2013-2023), IFC’s total financing in projects globally with Canadian clients and project sponsors totaled over 5.1 billion, of which 1.7 billion was IFC’s own account and 3.4 billion was in mobilization with other financing partners. The majority of funding was in oil, gas and mining, followed by electric power. Canada is one of IFC’s largest donors, supporting IFC’s investments and advisory services in all regions and across many sectors with a focus on climate, gender, agribusiness, and improving investment climate. Canada is a significant contributor to IFC's blended finance programs across all sectors and themes, in particular climate finance, with cumulative signed contributions of 702 million. Canada has also been actively supporting IFC Advisory Services with cumulative signed contributions 294 million as of June 30, 2023.
  • Publication
    IFC and Switzerland, Partners in Private Sector Development
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-03-19) International Finance Corporation
    Switzerland is one of the largest development partners for IFC Advisory Services, mainly through Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO. In FY19-23, Switzerland provided cumulative funding of over 173 million for Advisory Services and Blended Concessional Finance. Since 2014, SIFEM, the Swiss Development Finance Institution, has been a signatory of IFC’s Master Cooperation Agreement, which streamlines lending procedures for joint investments to ease financing to private companies in emerging markets. Since then, SIFEM has co-invested in several projects alongside IFC, and adopted the Operating Principles for Impact Management in 2019. Switzerland is providing ten million to support Ukraine’s small-scale farmers, who have been vital in feeding the population and safeguarding food security, as part of IFC’s two billion Economic Resilience Action (ERA) program. The Sustainable Cities Program supports sustainable infrastructure solutions in select cities in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Sub Saharan Africa and Latin America. Belgrade Waste-to-Energy is a Public Private Partnership (PPP) that enabled the city of Belgrade in Serbia, to close the largest open dumpsite in Europe, construct a sanitary landfill, eliminate groundwater pollution sources and build a waste-to-energy plant.
  • Publication
    IFC and Ireland, Partners in Private Sector Development
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-03-19) International Finance Corporation
    IFC’s main government counterparts are the Ministry of Finance, Irish Aid, and Enterprise Ireland. In FY19-23, Ireland provided cumulative funding of over five million in support of IFC Advisory Services, of which close to two million was committed in FY23. To date, Irish funding has supported several strategic IFC initiatives aimed at promoting private sector development in emerging markets, including in conflict-affected states in Africa, as well as gender equality and inclusion. In September 2019, IFC listed its first Canadian dollar green bond on the Euronext Dublin, the first time IFC has listed a green bond on Dublin’s stock exchange. In October 2018, IFC and the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work together to generate growth opportunities for Irish companies in emerging markets, with an initial focus on the food and agriculture sectors.
  • Publication
    IFC and Hungary, Partners in Private Sector Development
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-03-13) International Finance Corporation
    IFC’s main government counterparts are the Ministry of Finance of Hungary and the Hungarian Export-Import Bank PLC (Eximbank). In FY19-23, Hungary provided cumulative funding of ten million to the Hungary-IFC Partnership Trust Fund (HIPTF) II, of which seven million to support IFC advisory services and three million to support the 2030 Water Resources Group. As of June 2023, IFC has allocated 6.49 million of the HIPTF II funds to 16 active IFC advisory projects in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Central Asia. The HIPTF II is the second phase of the Hungary-IFC Partnership, which was established in 2014 with an initial twenty million contribution from Hungary and has delivered significant development results, supporting the energy, agribusiness, health, water management and ICT sectors across several regions in emerging markets.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Europe and Central Asia Economic Update, Spring 2025: Accelerating Growth through Entrepreneurship, Technology Adoption, and Innovation
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-04-23) Belacin, Matias; Iacovone, Leonardo; Izvorski, Ivailo; Kasyanenko, Sergiy
    Business dynamism and economic growth in Europe and Central Asia have weakened since the late 2000s, with productivity growth driven largely by resource reallocation between firms and sectors rather than innovation. To move up the value chain, countries need to facilitate technology adoption, stronger domestic competition, and firm-level innovation to build a more dynamic private sector. Governments should move beyond broad support for small- and medium-sized enterprises and focus on enabling the most productive firms to expand and compete globally. Strengthening competition policies, reducing the presence of state-owned enterprises, and ensuring fair market access are crucial. Limited availability of long-term financing and risk capital hinders firm growth and innovation. Economic disruptions are a shock in the short term, but they provide an opportunity for implementing enterprise and structural reforms, all of which are essential for creating better-paying jobs and helping countries in the region to achieve high-income status.
  • Publication
    Europe and Central Asia Economic Update, Fall 2024: Better Education for Stronger Growth
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-17) Izvorski, Ivailo; Kasyanenko, Sergiy; Lokshin, Michael M.; Torre, Iván
    Economic growth in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) is likely to moderate from 3.5 percent in 2023 to 3.3 percent this year. This is significantly weaker than the 4.1 percent average growth in 2000-19. Growth this year is driven by expansionary fiscal policies and strong private consumption. External demand is less favorable because of weak economic expansion in major trading partners, like the European Union. Growth is likely to slow further in 2025, mostly because of the easing of expansion in the Russian Federation and Turkiye. This Europe and Central Asia Economic Update calls for a major overhaul of education systems across the region, particularly higher education, to unleash the talent needed to reinvigorate growth and boost convergence with high-income countries. Universities in the region suffer from poor management, outdated curricula, and inadequate funding and infrastructure. A mismatch between graduates' skills and the skills employers are seeking leads to wasted potential and contributes to the region's brain drain. Reversing the decline in the quality of education will require prioritizing improvements in teacher training, updated curricula, and investment in educational infrastructure. In higher education, reforms are needed to consolidate university systems, integrate them with research centers, and provide reskilling opportunities for adult workers.
  • Publication
    Growth in the Middle East and North Africa
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-16) Gatti, Roberta; Torres, Jesica; Elmallakh, Nelly; Mele, Gianluca; Faurès, Diego; Mousa, Mennatallah Emam; Suvanov, Ilias
    This issue of the MENA Economic Update presents a summary of recent macroeconomic trends, including an update of the conflict centered in Gaza and its regional spillovers, alongside an analysis of factors that shape the long-term growth potential of the region, with special attention to the persistent effects of conflicts. A modest uptick in growth is forecast for 2024, which nonetheless masks important disparities within the region. The acceleration is driven by the high-income oil exporters, while growth is expected to decelerate among developing MENA countries, both developing oil exporters and developing oil importers. Despite current challenges, the region can dramatically boost growth by better allocating talent in the labor market, leveraging its strategic location, and promoting innovation. Closing the gender employment gap, rethinking the footprint of the public sector, and facilitating technology transfers through trade under enhanced data quality and transparency can help the region leap toward the frontier. Peace is a pre-condition for catching up to the frontier, as conflict can undo decades of progress, delaying economic development by generations.
  • Publication
    Digital Africa
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13) Begazo, Tania; Dutz, Mark Andrew; Blimpo, Moussa
    All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.
  • Publication
    Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21) Luna-Bazaldua, Diego; Levin, Victoria; Liberman, Julia; Gala, Priyal Mukesh
    This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.