DFC is committed to supporting investments throughout the Indo-Pacific, from Indonesia to Vietnam, India, and emerging economies across the region.
This region is currently home to many DFC investments that are addressing critical development challenges and helping to transform the region into a global leader in trade, innovation, and technology. By prioritizing financial viability, ensuring transparency, respecting rule of law and individual freedoms, fostering competitive markets, and employing the local workforce, DFC is advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific.
Through Blue Dot Network, the United States—led by DFC—is collaborating with its Japanese and Australian allies to promote quality infrastructure investments by certifying projects that adhere to high standards in the Indo-Pacific and beyond.
Financing to Varthana is helping more low-income children access the education they need. Varthana is a business that provides loans to affordable private schools that fill the gap in education that government schools cannot meet.
A loan to WayCool Foods is helping this four-year old company bring more produce to market in an efficient manner that avoids spoilage. WayCool is introducing technology, strict quality controls and efficient transportation to ensure that more produce reaches consumers. Working with tens of thousands of farmers across 15 states, WayCool weighs food before it leaves the farm, conducts quality checks in warehouses, and sends electronic payments to farmers, while transporting food to on markets in temperature controlled vehicles. Farmers who work with WayCool report a 30 percent increase in income and the food they grow is sold in markets around the country and to multiple international restaurant and hotel chains. DFC’s $5.5 million loan will support the continued expansion of this “farm-to-fork” value chain.
Financing enabled Australis Aquaculture to create Vietnam’s first open fish farm in Van Phong Bay, where it is raising barramundi, also known as Asian sea bass, a local fish that has a high nutritional value and is enjoying growing popularity around the world. In addition to introducing open aquaculture to Vietnam, enabling fish to swim freely in offshore net pens, the company has adopted fishing techniques that reduce food waste and methane emissions. Australis also worked with a nearby veterinary research institute to manufacture fish vaccines locally.
$250 million in financing to Apollo Towers Myanmar supported the development of telecommunications towers throughout the country. Apollo has built nearly 2,000 towers and mobile penetration has soared from three percent a decade ago to almost 90 percent in 2019. This increased connectivity is bringing significant improvements to the way people live and work, stimulating business activity and economic growth.
A $5 million loan is helping Goyol Cashmere, a local producer of wool and cashmere knitwear, construct a new factory and purchase additional equipment in order to expand production. Cashmere is Mongolia’s third largest export and provides stable incomes to over 100,000 people across the country. Goyal Cashmere is committed to providing opportunities to small farmers by sourcing 50 percent of its raw cashmere materials from rural herders.
Financing enabled Australis Aquaculture to create Vietnam’s first open fish farm in Van Phong Bay, where it is raising barramundi, also known as Asian sea bass, a local fish that has a high nutritional value and is enjoying growing popularity around the world. In addition to introducing open aquaculture to Vietnam, enabling fish to swim freely in offshore net pens, the company has adopted fishing techniques that reduce food waste and methane emissions. Australis also worked with a nearby veterinary research institute to manufacture fish vaccines locally.
A $3 million loan helped QuantumID, a Cambridge, Massachusetts startup, introduce a cargo tracking technology in India, and later, the Philippines. Quantum, which was started by a graduate student at MIT’s Sloan School of Business, developed handheld device that can be deployed without any upfront investments in hardware. The technology scans cargo before it is loaded onto and aircraft, helping reduce theft and misrouting and improving value chain productivity.
A $3 million loan helped Simpa Energy India introduce off-grid solar to energy poor households and microenterprises and is working to expand provide off-grid solar power to tens of thousands of families and small businesses.
A partial credit guaranty is helping local businesses, such as Meliomar, advance sustainable fishing practices. Meliomar is a seafood processor that sources sustainable fish from environmentally friendly, small-scale fisheries. Meliomar, founded in 2013, is working to educate sellers and consumers about sustainable fishing practices, and to support local livelihoods by promoting fair wages for coastal fishing communities.