Overseas Private Investment Corporation.

The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a wholly owned government corporation established in 1971, provides taxpayer-backed loans, loan guarantees, and insurance to U.S. businesses for investments in "politically risky" countries. According to OPIC, since 1971 the agency has supported $121 billion in overseas investments and has helped to generate $58 billion in U.S. exports, thereby creating more than 237,000 U.S. jobs. (OPIC doesn't discuss lost U.S. jobs, increased U.S. imports, and cuts in U.S. exports as a result of the agency's support for foreign, rather than domestic, investment by U.S. companies.) In 1998 alone, OPIC sponsored 47 projects in more than 30 countries. More than half of OPIC's portfolio is in the power and financial services sectors, and almost two-thirds is in the Caribbean, Central and South American, and Asia/Pacific regions.

OPIC offers up to $400 million in combined support for a single project--$200 million in financing and $200 million in insurance. Financing is available for new ventures and for the expansion or modernization of existing operations. Loan guarantees usually go to large projects and vary in size from $10 million to $200 million. OPIC provides direct loans for projects involving small businesses and cooperatives. According to the OPIC program handbook, the agency is supposed to consider what contribution a proposed project might make to the economic and social development of the host country before approving loans or loan guarantees.

The agency also sells insurance against: (1) currency inconvertibility--the deterioration in an investor's ability to convert profits, debt service, and other remittances from local currency into U.S. dollars and to transfer those dollars out of the host country; (2) the loss of an investment due to expropriation, nationalization, or confiscation by a foreign government; and (3) the loss of assets or income due to war, revolution, insurrection, or politically motivated civil strife, terrorism, or sabotage. As part of its efforts to promote foreign investment by U.S. companies, OPIC holds seminars-and conferences to explain its services. It also escorts corporate executives on foreign investment missions to meet business leaders, government officials, and potential joint-venture partners.

In the mid-1980s, OPIC began to establish private funds that purchase shares of ownership in overseas investments. By 1998, OPIC had launched almost 30 of these funds, such as the Poland Partners Fund and Aqua International Partners, to provide capital for investments in low-income countries and former nonmarket economies. OPIC selects the fund managers and provides long-term loans and loan guarantees that supplement a fund's privately raised equity.

OPIC claims to be a "self-sustaining" agency that generates revenue by selling its financing and insurance services to U.S. businesses. In 1998, 53 percent of OPIC's revenues came from interest on its U.S. Treasury securities. Additionally, Congress sometimes appropriates funds from the foreign aid budget for specific projects, such as special programs that provide financial backing for U.S. investment in the former Soviet Union. If borrowers default on loans or if insurance claims are filed, the risk ultimately is borne by the U.S. government and taxpayers. AS of September 1998, OPIC estimated that its noncollectable loans would total more than $7 million, that its exposure to credit risk under its loan guarantees was $6.3 billion, and that its exposure to insurance claims was, conservatively, $6.9 billion.

According to OPIC's President and Chief Executive Officer, George Munoz, in his fiscal year 2000 budget request, "[OPIC's] budget will provide OPIC a solid base to help America compete globally while mobilizing private sector investment in support of U.S. foreign policy goals." Similarly, OPIC's former President Ruth Harkin had testified that "OPIC-backed investments play a vital foreign policy role," because the Clinton administration has "made trade and investment promotion a major priority of foreign policy initiatives."

Key Points

* As a tool of U.S. foreign policy, OPIC provides loans, loan guarantees, and insurance for U.S. companies investing overseas.

* OPIC has helped launch and finance private investment fund that purchase ownership in foreign companies.

* OPIC estimates that it (and ultimately U.S. taxpayers) has billions of dollars in exposure to losses on defaulted loans and insurance claims.

Janice Shields is coordinator of the Corporate Welfare Project and TaxWatch, projects of the Institute for Business Research.