WASHINGTON — Since its founding in 2005, the Swiss Investment Fund for Emerging Markets has been working to create good jobs in emerging markets, but fulfilling the other part of its mandate — mobilizing private capital — has proven to be more difficult, according to Jörg Frieden, the organization’s chairman.
While a few large Swiss banks have established funds that have invested alongside the Swiss development finance institution only about 10% of its portfolio goes to mobilize private capital.
“It’s really peanuts if you put it in the context of the very large financial market [in Switzerland],” Frieden said in an interview, adding that he would like to see the proportion of SIFEM’s portfolio working to mobilize capital double in the next five years.