Administrator Samantha Power at the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation's Fifth Anniversary Conference

ADMINISTRATOR SAMANTHA POWER: Good morning, everybody. It is so great to be here. What an incredible day of discussion. What incredible speakers you have before you. What an incredible audience we have.

Scott [Nathan}, what a partner you've been. I really - when I think about where we started and where we are now, Nisha [Bishwa], the whole DFC team, it's been a really, really fruitful partnership, and I feel really privileged to get a chance to speak to some of that here today. Whether you are representing foreign governments here, as we have a few esteemed Ambassadors who can speak to DFC impact, the private sector and business community, policy makers, civil society, U.S. government officials, each of you is here because you have played some important role in DFC's growth and impact over the last five years.

I will describe the ways in which - or a few of the ways in which DFC is advancing U.S. foreign policy interests and increasingly operating in challenging settings to spearhead development gains. And I want to make clear for any skeptics that remain out there, this work that targets the most vulnerable and underserved in lower income, fragile, and conflict settings, may be complicated and it may not offer the kind of visible or early returns on investment as some of the high profile foreign policy initiatives the DFC now undertakes, but these efforts, rest assured, are just as important to U.S. strategic interests.

Five years ago, DFC started with a grand vision, elevating U.S. efforts to respond to China's Belt and Road Initiative, and modernizing our foreign assistance tools to harness private capital in less developed countries. Despite this grand vision, DFC started with humble beginnings - a small staffing footprint, as you've heard, given the exponential growth in staffing, limited overseas presence, and a modest budget, all things considered. DFC also had to absorb some very different cultures. The Overseas Private Investment Corporation, OPIC, staff carried more of a banking mentality, priding themselves rightly on running a self-sustaining operation, imposing no cost on the taxpayer. While the Development Credit Authority team brought over from USAID sought development impact with no expectation of a financial return.

But, over the past five years, DFC has evolved from those humble beginnings to deliver extraordinary results for the U.S. government, the American people, and our partners all around the world. During the course of the day, we will hear more about the growth of DFC in terms of volume, increasing from $6.7 billion worth of commitments across 61 projects in FY 2020, to 12 billion across 181 projects in FY 2024. This is really significant.

And, to put this in context, new commitments from the PRC's development bank and China's ex-im fell to just $3.7 billion in 2021. While impressive, though, I would argue that we should not measure DFC's success by investment volume alone. Instead, we should get behind the numbers and look at the impact of these investments on U.S. foreign policy interests and on development outcomes.

One of the biggest foreign policy priorities of the United States over these last several years has been standing up to Russian aggression in Ukraine. President Biden recognized that if the Ukrainian economy collapsed, Putin could have won this war without firing another shot. In 2023, Scott and I signed an MOU alongside Ukrainian Prime Minister [Denys] Shmyhal, committing to attract investment to help drive economic recovery. Ukraine, in an active war, would not have been a natural fit for OPIC, but the creation of the DFC has expanded the United States' toolkit.

Since the invasion, DFC has invested over $1 billion in Ukraine. For instance, when private insurance markets dried up in the wake of the invasion, creating a massive hurdle, of course, to investment, DFC stepped up to offer political risk insurance that has been vital to the survival and the growth of Ukrainian businesses. USAID and DFC, together, have worked to enhance the ability of Ukrainian banks to deliver working capital to small- and medium-sized enterprises offering them lifelines in this time of this brutal conflict, particularly in the agricultural sector.

And, if you aren't tracking, again, the remarkable progress that Ukrainian farmers have made getting the grain out, they are basically almost at their pre full-scale invasion export numbers, and that has bearing all around the world and on food prices right here at home.

Another U.S. and global priority, of course, is addressing climate change. DFC has delivered nearly $4 billion in new climate finance investments this past year, a nearly 700 percent increase from their climate investments four years ago.

As we know, while the private sector writ large has stepped up investments dramatically in renewables, businesses have often shied away from making investments in helping countries adapt to climate change, with the private sector, in fact, contributing less than 5 percent of so-called adaptation financing. But, this hasn't stopped DFC. It has made adaptation financing a core focus, proactively seeking opportunities to attract private capital, as is exemplified by a recent project alongside USAID and the Lightsmith Group to launch the so called scaled project, a Virtual Green Bank for adaptation, which will provide financing for solutions that build resilience to climate change, as we know extreme weather is already upon us all.

At the core of U.S. national interests, of course, is building more resilient supply chains. DFC has helped countries move away from reliance on investment from the PRC, and the substandard business practices it often employs, by providing alternative financing options to countries that are seeking investments in clean energy manufacturing, essential infrastructure such as ports, and telecommunications, and critical minerals and mining.

When I visited Angola earlier this year, I got to see a prime example of this work firsthand. DFC's $553 million loan that will contribute to the ambitious effort to build the African continent's first ever Trans-African railroad, the Lobito Atlantic Railway. Scott accompanied President Biden on his visit to the railway last week, itself, a great reflection of just how transformative this DFC investment will be in connecting the region - meaning its resources, its businesses and its people - to global markets, while also reducing PRC influence in the corridor, advancing high standards, and promoting competitive markets for the global shipment of critical minerals.

These are just three examples of the impact being felt in every corner of the planet thanks to the progress that DFC, and so many of you have made. But, in celebrating DFC's foreign policy achievements, we should not lose sight of DFC's development mission. Next month's political transition comes at a critical point in DFC trajectory, given the need for reauthorization prior to October 2025. My hope is that moving forward, the D in Development Finance Corporation remains paramount. For all of the success that DFC has had, there are actually those who have begun positioning investments in America's foreign policy as distinct from or even in tension with investments in developmentally-oriented projects.

As we head toward reauthorization, the critical emphasis on national security and strategic competition should not lead to a de-emphasis on operating in more challenging markets or on making smaller investments. As we know, at USAID, achieving development outcomes prioritized by our partners is good for strategic competition and advances our broader interests. Around the world, we are seeing buyers remorse around PRC development projects that were done but not always done right - not benefiting local communities or driving broad based economic growth, perhaps fueling corruption, and at the same time, as we well know, increasing many countries' debt to unsustainable levels.

And we see this dissatisfaction reflected in falling perceptions of the PRC as a partner around the world. At the same time, however, the PRC is adapting. So, we need to make sure that what we have on offer delivers a better option for today's challenges. And DFC and USAID's partnership has proven critical to making that happen.

Over the past five years, USAID and DFC have partnered on 116 transactions in over 40 countries with the potential to mobilize more than $4.2 billion in private capital toward USAID's development objectives. As Scott mentioned, we celebrated recently crossing the 100th transaction in our partnership with DFC's Mission Transaction Unit. As USAID Administrator, I have emphasized to our staff all around the world that DFC financing is one of the most critical development tools that USAID has access to. And we are continuing to grow our partnership.

This year, in fact, USAID will be working closely to support DFC's efforts to increase investments in fragile, difficult to reach, and conflict prone markets. And, hear this: this is a necessary approach when more than two billion people are now in fragile and conflict-affected regions. These regions, also - if you hear nothing else, hear this - are home to important resources, like critical minerals that are vital for national security. The PRC, of course, already has a head start in this space, as it produces 85 to 90 percent of the world's supply of rare earths, and multiple other critical minerals. So we can't afford to focus only on private sector-led growth in stable environments, and that is why this USAID-DFC partnership is so rich and so impactful and going places.

American presence and leadership in more challenging and complex markets is transformational in lifting people out of poverty. But beyond this development imperative, these investments build critical alliances with countries around the world, just like it has in Angola. Alliances that reduce the influence of strategic competitors and malign actors, while opening markets for investment from American businesses. In fact, it is in these settings that DFC investment is most additional and most needed to crowd in private capital otherwise content to sit on the sidelines.

So, thank you, Scott, Nisha, and again, all of the DFC staff for being a great partner to USAID and advocating for the development impact of DFC's work. It has been an honor to have served on the DFC board over the past few years, and I really look forward to seeing what the next five years are going to bring. It could not be more important for U.S. foreign policy or for development.

Thank you so much.

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