

Letter from the President

I am pleased to present the Annual Report for the year 2021, along with the financial statements for the years ending on December 31, 2021, and 2020, pursuant to the provisions of the agreement establishing the Inter-American Investment Corporation, whose brand is IDB Invest.
Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is slowly mending from a crisis that threatens earlier efforts to set the region on a path towards greater economic and social progress. A strong, sustainable, and more inclusive recovery requires key contributions from the private sector, the main driver of economic activity and employment in the region, and higher levels of investment to trigger innovation and build up the capital needed for long-term development.
IDB Invest is in a unique position to help LAC countries meet this critical challenge through the private sector. Through our Vision 2025, a roadmap to accelerate the region's recovery and enable sustainable, inclusive growth, we are focused on five priority areas: climate action, gender and diversity, small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), the digital economy and regional integration and value chains.
Continue readingLetter from the CEO

Latin America and the Caribbean now face a crossroads where we must work to optimize the many opportunities to build a different and better world.
We all want a fairer, more sustainable region, more committed to nature, more inclusive, with a better balance between rural and urban areas, with respect for minorities and in which gender equality is defended. The question is how to get there.
In 2021 IDB Invest played a very active role in pursuing such goals. As a development bank, we used our capital and mobilized additional resources to invest in private sector projects to accelerate sustainable economic growth and inclusion.
In the second year of the pandemic, our institution surpassed all its operational goals, delivering our highest-ever lending volume to the region.
That’s a track record we want to build upon, but there’s more to come.
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Annual Report 2021 Stories
Discover through the stories of our 2021 Annual Report how we are generating sustainable impact together with IDB Invest clients.
OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
Our Approach: Investing in Green and Inclusive Growth
During the second year of the pandemic, LAC faced the daunting task of recovering from the worst socio-economic crisis in more than a century.
Given the disproportionate impact of the crisis on vulnerable populations, increased risks from climate change, and public sector constraints in confronting these challenges, a successful recovery must be a sustainable and inclusive one – and private-sector-led.
At our 2021 Annual Meeting in Barranquilla, IDB President Mauricio Claver-Carone outlined our Vision 2025, a roadmap to accelerate the recovery and achieve sustainable, inclusive growth.
To meet this challenge, we honed in on five opportunities: taking bolder climate action, promoting gender equity and inclusion, deepening regional integration and strengthening value chains, promoting a digital economy, and supporting small and medium-sized firms to narrow an estimated $1 trillion financing gap.
• FIVE OPPORTUNITIES
open/close• THREE MAJOR MILESTONES
open/closeHIGHLIGHTS
BY
SECTOR
INFRASTRUCTURE
The pandemic continued to affect the development and implementation of infrastructure projects across LAC. Certain categories of infrastructure, mainly those exposed to demand risks, such as airports, ports, and toll roads, were considerably impacted. Supply-chain disruptions, labor constraints, and temporary work stoppages caused delays and cost overruns in construction.
Projects that were in pipeline or under construction before the pandemic have largely continued; however, in many cases, ongoing market uncertainty slowed the structuring of new projects. Additionally, the effects of the pandemic and uncertainty related to the region’s economic recovery are causing sponsors of large projects to delay their investment decisions.
IDB Invest’s expertise in the infrastructure and energy segments enabled it to continue structuring groundbreaking solutions to respond to challenges caused by the pandemic. That includes projects like a floating storage regasification unit in El Salvador. Among the standout deals:
• WORLD'S FIRST CERTIFICATE FOR GREEN TRANSMISSION LINES
open/close• FIRST LIQUIDITY SOLUTIONS FOR CHILE'S ENERGY SECTOR
open/close• FIRST INVESTMENT IN BARBADOS: PORT OF BRIDGETOWN
open/close• PROJECT BOND TO FINANCE PARAGUAY'S FIRST PPP
open/close• INCREASING INTEGRATION THROUGH COLOMBIAN PORT
open/closeFINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
Financial systems across the region proved to be resilient as the recovery got underway, carrying high liquidity, remaining well-capitalized, and carefully planning funding strategies to support portfolio growth. On the investment funds side, we witnessed an increasing appetite for new fund launches focused on sustainability, MSMEs and digitalization.
In 2021 more financial institutions embraced sustainable financing as a key component of their business strategy. IDB Invest continued to play a leadership role by creating integrated value propositions to help clients advance this agenda and create capabilities for an effective sustainable transformation of the financial sector.
Demand to address the MSME financing gap continued to be strong and will be key during the recovery. The pandemic also accelerated the financial sector’s digital transformation, which will provide new opportunities to contribute to the financial inclusion of underserved segments. Standout deals included:
• INCREASING ACCESS TO THE DIGITAL ECONOMY IN BRAZIL
open/close• INVESTING IN INCLUSIVE BANKING IN PERU
open/close• DIGITAL DISRUPTION
open/close• GREEN CONSTRUCTION
open/close• CLOSING FINANCING GAPS
open/closeCORPORATES
IDB Invest contributed to supporting investments, job creation and sustainable business models in a variety of sectors including agribusiness, manufacturing, telecommunications, media and technology, and tourism.
We experienced increased demand from companies striving to address the impact of climate change in areas such as smart-agriculture, circular economy, electromobility, and energy efficiency, among others. IDB Invest’s integrated value proposition and experience in these agendas have been of key relevance.
We prioritized projects that supported regional integration and value chain activity, aligned with Vision 2025, fostering growth in exports, trade, and services that promote job creation. Also, IDB Invest continued supporting liquidity needs across major anchor companies participating in the account payables program. Complementing those efforts, several new working capital facilities were structured to provide support to existing value chains and address short-term financing needs.
Digitalization was also a key priority addressed not only through activity in the Telecom, Media and Technology sectors but also via equity investments across the retail and agribusiness sectors. These were often implemented using digitally-enabled business models.
AGRIBUSINESS
Agribusiness was relatively less impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, as demand for primary products remained strong. Nevertheless, the sector continued experiencing logistical problems and disruptions in the workforce.
Several companies put on hold their long-term investment plans and experienced a diminished risk appetite from commercial banks that traditionally financed the sector. In this context, companies continued their efforts to diversify their client base.
IDB Invest supported the demand for capital expenditures in climate-smart agriculture projects to expand production capacity, increase productivity and promote international expansion.

A Fresh Idea for Financing Produce Farmers
Watch storyMANUFACTURING
LAC’s manufacturing sector continued facing a very challenging environment, with new investments being delayed as demand showed mixed behaviors. Many players experienced supply-chain disruptions and human-resource constraints, but some specific industries saw stronger demand, including pharmaceuticals and retail businesses.
IDB Invest continued identifying those projects with solid bases for new capital investments and committed to sustainability and ESG factors, as well as providing liquidity relief to MSMEs through short-term products such as account payables/reverse factoring facilities.
In this context, manufacturing projects continued supporting job creation, value chains mostly composed by MSMEs, productivity gains, improved energy efficiency, social housing, regional integration, and exports increase. Some examples included:
• STRENGHTHENING VALUE CHAINS
open/close• SUPPORTING URBAN DEVELOPMENT
open/closeDIGITALIZATION
In 2021, the Telecommunications, Media and Technology sectors experienced an important opportunity for growth as the pandemic pushed consumers and corporations to increase online interactions, prompting a historical boom within the digital ecosystem throughout the region.
Social distancing requirements imposed by the pandemic and the faster pace of technology adoption by end-consumers and corporations favored the consolidation of tech-enabled business models that contribute to increasing productivity, innovation and better access to services and transformation.
IDB Invest continued supporting disruptive digital-first business models across LAC. For example:
• RETAIL DIGITALIZATION
open/close• DISRUPTIVE BUSINESS MODELS
open/close• TELECOM INFRASTRUCTURE
open/closeTOURISM
Tourism continues to be one of the most affected sectors in LAC given the lingering effects of the pandemic. Border restrictions, business closures and uneven vaccination rates throughout the region are still curbing consumer confidence and resulting in reduced international travel.
However, the industry reached an important inflection point in 2021 and started to experience a gradual improvement in fundamentals, driven in particular by domestic leisure travel and increased vaccination rates. With a return of corporate and group travel, the tourism sector is anticipated to continue on a recovery path.
Nevertheless, in the short-term, liquidity needs across the entire tourism value chain persist, while traditional commercial banks have remained averse to increasing their exposure to tourism given the uncertain environment. This resulted in IDB Invest adjusting its tourism strategy to focus on: (1) supporting the working capital needs of regional tourism portfolios so that they can remain solvent and reopen their operations, and (2) incentivizing local commercial banks to continue to support the liquidity needs of tourism businesses by offering sovereign and private sector guarantees.
SMALL AND ISLAND COUNTRIES
open/close
Back to Business on the Beach
Watch storySustainability & Impact
Sustainability is a core value at IDB Invest and a key component to building back better in the region’s economic recovery. It cuts across every sector, whether we are expanding access to credit for women entrepreneurs, supporting climate-smart agriculture, or financing resilient infrastructure.
By working with clients and investors to put sustainability into practice, we are helping them become more profitable over time and reinforcing our commitment to increasing development impact. We’re part of a transition to an economy that delivers returns while fulfilling a role in society.

A Calling to Serve Businesses
Watch story• ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE (ESG)
open/close• MANAGING IMPACT
open/closeFinancing & Risk Management
In LAC, the estimated gap between current levels of development financing and the amounts needed to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals has been estimated at over $650 billion annually, which stretches far beyond the capacity of development finance institutions. In consequence, IDB Invest has a duty to mobilize more resources from traditional partners as well as impact investors seeking to achieve social and environmental goals.
Our regional expertise, early project access and seal of approval make us an entry point for such investors. During 2021 IDB Invest sought to increase not only the total amount of mobilized resources, but also the number of projects with a mobilization component, allowing us to increase the ratio of mobilized resources to own-account long-term commitments to 0.95.

Innovation Everywhere You Look
Watch storyKnowledge & Communications
IDB Invest generates and disseminates knowledge and lessons learned from its experience as a development practitioner to enhance the impact of its projects. During 2021 we organized virtual events on a variety of sustainability topics, ranging from sustainable agribusiness to the environmental and social management of investment funds.
For example, in September we held the AgriLAC forum, a virtual event to share best practices in sustainability and the agribusiness value chain, drawing more than 5,000 participants from corporations, financial institutions, non-profits and investors, and almost 12,000 online viewers in streaming.
In addition, IDB Invest and the IDB launched a webinar series to promote the Gender Parity Initiative. On this theme, a joint publication with BID Intal – “An unequal Olympiad: gender equity in Latin American and Caribbean companies” – looked at gender gaps in 1,015 companies in 20 countries.
IDB Invest also developed several practical guides on topics including the blue economy, thematic bonds, digital readiness for financial cooperatives, and strengthening climate change resilience in ports.
Throughout 2021 IDB Invest generated more than 8.2K media mentions and reached more than 13 million people through social media. Likewise, the corporate blog Negocios Sostenibles increased its audience by 34%.
A new partnership was launched in the middle of the year with Bloomberg News, which is republishing all of the blog's content on its financial news terminals.
IDB Invest also made significant progress on its Knowledge Ecosystem. The IDB Invest Knowledge Appstore - The Knowledge Engine - went live in 2021, allowing users to interact with knowledge assets in new ways to promote a knowledge-sharing culture and enhance employee productivity.
ACHIEVEMENTS
open/close• BONDS
open/close• SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE, WATER AND ROADS
open/close• SOLAR AND MIXED RENEWABLES
open/close• LOANS AND PRIVATE EQUITY
open/close• MANUFACTURING AND AGRICULTURE
open/close
Greening a Mobility Giant
Watch storyInstitutional Governance
Our Mission
IDB Invest promotes the economic development of its regional developing member countries by encouraging the establishment, expansion, and modernization of private enterprises in such a way as to supplement the activities of the IDB.
IDB Invest aims to be the leading financial institution with the knowledge and expertise to invest with impact in Latin America and the Caribbean and to connect its countries and private sector investments with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Our Mandate
Guided by the principles of strengthening development effectiveness, IDB Invest contributes to the development and maximization of the efficient use of resources and synergies between activities with the public and private sectors of the IDB Group. IDB Invest is responsible for all non-sovereign guaranteed operations of the IDB Group (including non-sovereign guaranteed operations with state-owned enterprises).