News & Highlights, January 2023
Dear , Welcome to Insights InfraCo Asia!
In our first edition for 2023, we are pleased to share: Reflections on 2022 from PIDG CEO Philippe Valahu Cambodia Water Portfolio project achieves financial close Nepal Rooftop Solar project completes 800kW rooftop solar installation InfraZamin Pakistan’s first
guarantee Cambodia Cold Storage project’s gender initiatives … and more!
From a landmark credit guarantee transaction in Vietnam, to the close of landmark deals and expansion of existing projects in Cambodia: Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) CEO Philippe Valahu reflects on PIDG's 2022 successes in a recently published post. He also sets intentions for the 2023 task at hand for InfraCo Asia, InfraCo Africa, and PIDG's technical assistance, guarantee, and debt arms. Read the full post here
Cambodia Water Portfolio project achieves financial close
(From left to right) Sharyn Bow, Director, Technical & Implementation; Colin Liu, Manager, HSES; Le Duc Son, Senior Manager, Business Development; William Puyo, General Manager, Khmer Water Supply Holding (KWSH); Claudine Lim, Interim CEO and COO; Raghav Koshik, former Senior Manager, Portfolio Management.
The Cambodia Water Portfolio project, developed in partnership with Khmer Water Supply Holding (KWSH) has achieved financial close. KWSH will utilise the USD $2.3 Million loan provided by InfraCo Asia to extend its water pipeline network and provide 24/7 and first-time access to adequate and safe water to approximately 66,900 people.
Following InfraCo Asia’s investment, US DFC has committed a $7 million loan to KWSH to bring piped, potable water to an additional 45,000 Cambodian households in rural and semi-rural areas. Read the Press Release here
Nepal Rooftop Solar completes 800 kW of rooftop solar installation
The Nepal Rooftop Solar project has made headway on its target of installing 8MW of commercial and industrial rooftop solar plants by 2023. Simple Energy Private Limited, the project company, commissioned its first 800kW of rooftop solar for Jagadamba Spinning Mills (500kW) and MM Plastics (300kW) in Bhairahwah, Nepal. The company also celebrated 2000 safe workdays without incident on 22 December 2022 which was achieved through regular training on the PIDG Lifesaving Rules at project sites.
Simple Energy Private Limited (SEPL) and InfraCo Asia staff check the installation at Jagadamba Spinning Mills in Bhairahwah, Nepal
InfraZamin Pakistan’s first guarantee:
A digital infrastructure project promoting connectivity
Members of InfraZamin Pakistan, Habib Bank Limited and Multinet at the guarantee signing.
InfraZamin Pakistan signed its first guarantee with Habib Bank Limited (HBL) and Multinet on 18 August 2022.
Cambodia Cold Storage project implements gender initiatives
Khmer Cold Chain (KCC), the Cambodia Cold Storage project company, implemented a series of initiatives to raise awareness for issues related to gender equity in the workplace with the support of PIDG TA grant. Some of these activities include gender-based violence and harassment training (GVBH) for KCC staff, construction partners and wider project stakeholders installation of posters on gender equality at the worksite, and setting up lights at the construction site to improve safety after dark. Once operational, the project will continue to receive PIDG TA support
Khmer Cold Chain (KCC) gender equality posters in both Khmer and English
Building a safety culture: Annual Compliance Training 2022
Representatives from InfraCo Asia’s group of companies and InfraCo Asia staff gathered in Singapore in October 2022 for the Annual Compliance Training.
InfraCo Asia’s Annual Compliance Training was held in October 2022 with PIDG, InfraCo Asia staff and project partners participating in Singapore and online. The 2.5-day training focused on knowledge sharing and exchange of best practices between PIDG, InfraCo Asia and the project companies on topics like anti-bribery and corruption management, biodiversity risk management, human rights safeguarding, crisis management, assessing project impact and communicating project stories.
InfraCo Asia Perspectives
InfraCo Asia speakers participated in and shared their knowledge at a number of events in 2022. Claudine Lim spoke at the B20 Blended Finance Seminar held in Jakarta in September 2022, at the lead up to the G20 Summit hosted by the Indonesian government. She shared about PIDG and InfraCo Asia to an audience of Indonesian business owners, government agencies and regional participants.
Karen sharing at FT Live Moral Money Summit Asia in Singapore on the topic "Are alternative assets the next frontier for ESG investments?"
Claudine presenting at B20 in Jakarta, Indonesia
Karen Tsang-Hounsell shared on the topic "Are alternative assets the next frontier for ESG investments?" at FT Live Moral Money Summit Asia in September 2022; and about developing solar projects with solar industry representatives in the Philippines at a workshop by Infrastructure Asia and the Development Bank of Philippines in November 2022. Cristina Traini participated at the GenderSmart roundtable in June 2022 where she shared how PIDG adopts a gender lens across projects in Asia.
We are inviting applications for the following roles at InfraCo Asia.
To find out more about these roles, please visit infracoasia.com/careers
About InfraCo AsiaInfraCo Asia is a commercially-managed infrastructure development and investment company of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG). By de-risking early-stage infrastructure development projects in South and Southeast Asia, InfraCo Asia catalyses private sector investment and provides better access to quality, sustainable
infrastructure to people in low-income countries. The Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) is an innovative infrastructure development and finance organisation which encourages and mobilises private investment in pioneering infrastructure in the frontier markets of sub-Saharan Africa and south and south-east Asia to promote economic development and combat poverty. PIDG delivers its ambition in line with its values of opportunity, accountability, safety, integrity and impact. Since 2002, PIDG has supported 175 infrastructure projects to financial close
and provided an estimated 223 million people with access to new or improved infrastructure. PIDG is funded by six governments (UK, Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia, Sweden, Germany) and the IFC.
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