To date, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, or DFC, has committed $41 billion to 112 countries, placing it second behind China in terms of total dollars invested abroad. But it could — and should — do more.
The United States lags behind its allies and competitors given the relative size of America’s economy. As the U.S. Congress begins talks to reauthorize DFC, emboldening the agency would allow it to activate more money for more projects, helping meet the critical needs facing emerging markets and developing economies, or EMDEs.
The global demand for infrastructure investment has never been greater. EMDEs currently fall well short of the capital they need to modernize roads, seaports, energy grids, digital infrastructure, and the other essential building blocks of economic growth. That funding gap is only expected to increase over the next 15 years, widening to over $4.5 trillion across low- and middle-income countries by 2040.
About the authors
Mark Kennedy
Mark Kennedy is director of the Wilson Center’s Wahba Institute for Strategic Competition and president emeritus of the University of Colorado. Kennedy served as a U.S. representative from Minnesota from 2001 to 2007.
Jeffrey Kucik
Jeffrey Kucik is a global fellow at the Wahba Institute for Strategic Competition at the Wilson Center and an associate professor at the University of Arizona.
