Campaign Promises

Other/Miscellaneous -> Independent Organizations -> OPIC


ItemIndependent Organizations
OPICGrade
IO-63 The Promise: "...will provide initial capital for an SME [Small and Medium Enterprises] Fund...through the Overseas Private Investment Corporation [OPIC]...The SME Fund will be designed to provide seed capital and technical assistance to catalyze the establishment of job-creating small and medium enterprises, and to build the capacity of entrepreneurs to translate their ideas into viable businesses..."
When/Where: Obama-Biden Plan: "Strengthening Our Common Security by Investing in Our Common Humanity", dated 09/11/08.
Source: https://www.cgdev.org/sites/default/files/archive/doc/blog/obama_strengthen_security.pdf
Status:The Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) existed as an OPIC program long before President Obama ran for office. In short, the SME Finance Program has two forms of eligibility:
- SME Direct Loan Eligibility for U.S. corporations with less than $250M in revenues and U.S. individuals or investment entities with less than $67M in equity.
- SME Loan Eligibility (Expedited Approval Process) for U.S. corporations with less than $35M in revenues and individuals or investment entities with less than $27M in equity.

One of the most effective U.S. SME support programs is the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program, in existence since CY1982 and funded at over $2B annually. But this promise focused on OPIC's international SME support programs.

OPIC itself has committed hundreds of millions of dollars to the SME sector in collaboration with financial giants such as Citi and GE Capital. In Central America alone, SME's were financed in the Pre-Obama era (pre-CY2009) as follows: Costa Rica $60M, El Salvador $47.5M, Guatemala $35M, Honduras $37.5M, Nicaragua $12.5M and Panama $7.5M.

When this promise was made, OPIC was in the process of investing $150M in private SMEs in Jordan.

OPIC also committed $100M to Garanti Bank of Turkey in 12/09 to finance its medium-to-long term loans to SME clients. The same bank received another $400M in financing from OPIC in CY2012.

So the promise to provide "initial capital" to OPIC's SME support program was without foundation.

This promise was not fulfilled..
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IO-64 The Promise: "...will provide initial capital for...creation of regional 'SME Universities' supported by America's business schools."
When/Where: Obama-Biden Plan: "Strengthening Our Common Security by Investing in Our Common Humanity", dated 09/11/08.
Source: https://www.cgdev.org/sites/default/files/archive/doc/blog/obama_strengthen_security.pdf
Status:As of end-CY2016, there was no sign that any specific regional Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) "Universities," not to be confused with Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) student chapters, had been created during President Obama's two terms in office.

This promise was not fulfilled.
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