Government investors are not necessarily driven by the return maximizing calculus that motivates private investors. If foreign official demand is the real reason behind the euro s strength, the risk is that foreign sovereign euro buyers will eventually flee, just as private investors would, only in a faster and more concentrated way.

So in the end I went to private investors and I just gave up on it.

Private sector representatives emphasized the positive impact produced by economic reforms on private investors' perception of the country, as a result of which several partnership agreements had recently been established between foreign companies and the local private sector.

In addition, there is no agreement as to what extent the private investors in infrastructure projects should have their risks covered.

The environmental impact of tourism is heavily influenced by the decisions taken by private sector investors and operators of tourism enterprises.

Private investment, particularly in productive sectors, remained low due to an ongoing lack of confidence of potential investors in the political situation.

SMEs needed assistance in improving institutional and structural capacities over the long term, so that national and foreign private investors would be attracted.

Over the past three years, private investors have invested more than 3 billion euros in generating energy from wind, water, sun and biomass.

Financing for the most expensive projects implementing green energy systems, building transport infrastructure, and developing modern cities must come from foreign institutional investors. But high quality private investors are resistant to financing lumpy, illiquid investments in fragile, volatile states.

Double bottom line ventures invest primarily in SMEs and include development venture capital funds where the public sector helps to cover the risks that might deter private investors while the private partner manages the investments.

In order to encourage private investors to pursue long term, responsible projects, governments need to promote consistent policies and frameworks. In addition to immediate uncertainties, investors are being held back by a shortage of incentives and a surplus of factors that reduce returns.

Offering incentives to attract private investors to the telecommunications sector and assigning them a definite role in expanding and upgrading the system have also been considered.

On the legislative front, key laws have recently been enacted to ensure the existence of an enabling environment for both the private sector and external investors.

The purpose of these important rules is to protect outside investors from the opportunism of insiders. When such rules are too lax, insiders face insufficient constraints on their ability to run the firm in ways that serve their private interests at the expense of outside, general investors.

Where the benefits are unlikely to accrue to private investors, who should pay for the early demonstration models, which will require billions of dollars? How should we preserve private incentives for research and development while committing to transfer successful technologies to developing countries?

Subsequent programs to deal with emerging market crises featured an analogous combination of country adjustment and private sector involvement. Voluntary debt exchanges worked, roughly speaking, with investors accepting haircuts.

After 14 years of devastating war, we faced enormous challenges. Our democratically elected government has worked with international partners and a growing number of private investors to turn things around.

After 14 years of devastating war, we faced enormous challenges. Our democratically elected government has worked with international partners and a growing number of private investors to turn things around.

Obliged to borrow on the international markets in order to fund basic development projects often shunned by private investors, who considered the related risks too high, they faced rising debts.

The favored bogeymen of the day are giant government investors, particularly Asian central banks, with their trillions of dollars in assets. These superfunds, whose managers do not necessarily share the same passion for profit as private investors, are said to be squeezing the life out of interest rates and exchange rates.

Some would object that the renminbi is weak because China is experiencing capital outflows by private investors, and that some of this private money also flows into US financial markets. This is technically correct, but it is already factored into the changes in interest rates described above.

For years to come, the private banking sector will be preoccupied with the consequences of the financial crisis. As a result, investors value a strong public partner now more than ever before.

But the tides are shifting. Sovereign wealth funds and institutional and private investors are increasingly recognizing that climate change will undermine their returns, and that governments eventually will begin to address the problem.

Ivy League Investors

Indeed, public sector asset management could be outsourced, with private asset managers competing for the job. This would accelerate the development of the asset management sector, with far reaching benefits for savers and investors.

Development banks can also play an important role in designing financial tools that allow private investors to contribute to the fight against climate change. But today s funding challenge is no longer just about quantity.

The BEC s argument that the new model will be a public private partnership between governments, research institutions, and investors shines a welcome spotlight on the relationship. Unfortunately, however, aside from Gates and his colleagues, there are few signs that the private sector can be counted on to lead the way.

What do investors get?

Currently, new investors' interest is picking up, and some investors established before 1998 have dramatically increased capacity.

In certain circumstances, African Governments could help to develop linkages between domestic private sector firms and foreign businesses by offering initial incentives (fiscal, financial etc.) for doing business on the continent. Moreover, Governments in Africa could promote the establishment of advisory councils for investors, which would include private sector representatives and governmental officials.

Private sector investors ought to be more than willing to kick in that 35 billion, for they stand to make a fortune when financial asset prices close some of the gap between their current and normal values. If the fund does well over the next five years  returns profits of 9 per year private investors get a market rate of return on their very risky equity investment and the equivalent of an annual management fee equal to 2 of assets under management.

Private sector investors ought to be more than willing to kick in that 35 billion, for they stand to make a fortune when financial asset prices close some of the gap between their current and normal values. If the fund does well over the next five years returns profits of 9 per year private investors get a market rate of return on their very risky equity investment and the equivalent of an annual management fee equal to 2 of assets under management.

The commemoration of the International Year of Microcredit in 2005 was used to raise awareness among Governments, finance institutions, NGOs and private investors of the specific opportunities offered through microfinancing for the development and decolonization processes.

Are Foreign Investors Still Welcome?

Private infrastructure developers and long term investors essentially withdrew as Governments were unable to put in place sustainable policies that assured adequate and predictable returns, particularly in the politically contentious power and water sectors (World Bank, ibid.).

True, private capital flows have surged in the wake of global liberalization and these countries privatization schemes. But private capital flows have proven to be volatile and prone to sudden interruptions, as exemplified by the Asian and Russian financial crises of the late 1990 s, or more recently by investors pulling out from infrastructure sectors.

Investors willingness to make capital available over the longer term for infrastructure development, job creation, and economic growth depends on their perceptions of various kinds of risk. Policymakers can manage these perceptions by improving public sector governance, ensuring sound macroeconomic management, promoting a transparent and supportive legal framework for private sector activity, building debt management capacity, and protecting investors from expropriation.

Bank of America s takeover of Countrywide and Merrill Lynch and Wells Fargo s takeover of Wachovia underscore the problem. With nationalization, the government can break up these financial monstrosities and sell them to private investors as smaller good banks.

A little bad for monkey investors.

Therefore, Governments would increasingly have to defend their investors' interests abroad while protecting themselves against claims filed by foreign investors domestically.

This is where the public side both national governments and the EU should step in and share some of the risk with private players. They should temporarily behave more like investors who scrutinize projects, contribute funding, and earn returns.

During the 1990 s, private investors looked at big, lumbering central banks as cash cows, long on money and short on financial acumen. George Soros once made a billion dollars off the Bank of England in just an hour.

It has been several years since private investors and states began buying and leasing millions of hectares of farmland worldwide in order to secure their domestic supply of food, raw commodities, and biofuels, or to get subsidies for carbon storage through plantations. Western investors, including Wall Street banks and hedge funds, now view direct investments in land as a safe haven in an otherwise turbulent financial climate.

If there are investors willing to finance U.S. government budget deficit, why wouldn't we find investors willing to finance press freedom deficit?

Beyond promoting mixed ownership involving private capital, strengthening corporate governance, and facilitating commercial operations, the reforms promise to open up the energy, resources, and telecom industries to non state investors. This new round of SOE reform should be pursued diligently.