Washington, 3 October 1996 (RFE/RL) -- The International Finance Corporation (IFC) says its loans and investments in Russia, Ukraine and several other former Soviet states are growing so fast it is shifting the director of its European Department from Washington to Moscow.
The IFC, the World Bank's private sector affiliate, says it will be the first time in the corporation's 40-year history that a director has been stationed outside of Washington.
The director, Edward Nassim, will move his office to Moscow to oversee the IFC's operations in Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Belarus and Georgia. IFC currently has investments and loans of about $235 million in Russian firms and around $20 million in Ukrainian companies.
However, Nassim says that because of the fast-growing interest of investors in the region, the IFC has projects in the pipeline totaling more than $1 billion.
The IFC has a staff of about 430 in the region now.
The move was announced as the IFC signed a new $10 million loan and investment with Troika Dialog, one of Russia's leading securities firms. Nassim says the IFC will have a minority ownership of the firm. He says Troika should play a "crucial role" in developing Russia's securities and financial sector by providing markets for shares of larger privatized companies and channeling foreign investment.