UK’s development finance institution CDC is rebranding as British International Investment (BII) as part of a strategy change to help boost investment and growth in the Caribbean, Asia and Africa.

The new name will take effect from 4 April 2022 under a new chair Diana Layfield.

Layfield will join the board as a non-executive director. She is currently Google president, EMEA partnerships and a non-executive director at AstraZeneca. She was formerly the CEO of Standard Chartered, Africa. She is also currently a director at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

BII will build on the existing strategy of investing up to £2bn (€2.38bn) a year over the next five year period starting next year and will go further by increasing its focus on climate finance, including in green infrastructure.

The development finance institution will also target new investment in digital infrastructure.

BII will also have an expanded geographical remit to include the Indo-Pacific and Caribbean.

The UK government said BII will be a key part of its wider plans to mobilise up to £8bn a year of public and private-sector investment in international projects by 2025.

This will include BII partnering with capital markets and sovereign wealth funds to scale up financing and help the private sector move in, it said.

Foreign, commonwealth and development secretary Liz Truss said: “Too many countries are loading their balance sheets with unsustainable debt. Reliable and honest sources of finance are needed.

“Britain and our allies will provide that, with British International Investment a key delivery vehicle.”

Nick O’Donohoe, chief executive of BII, said over the past five years the development finance institution has invested close to £7bn and “mobilised billions more in Asia and Africa”.

He said: “This new strategy will allow us to invest further in even more countries and will result in us financing the critical infrastructure that will allow all countries to build back better and make a positive difference to countless lives.”

The company has investments in over 1,000 businesses in emerging economies with total net assets of £6.8bn. CDC recently partnered with DP World to invest $1.72bn in ports and logistics infrastructure across Africa.

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