OPIC Development Mission

Development Mission Submenu

What is OPIC?	Key Publications
OPIC's Development Mission	2003-2008 Strategic Plan
2002 Development Summary	2004 Performance Plan
Encouraging Good Corporate Citizenship	2002 Development Report
OPIC Statute and Congressional Governance	Annual Reports
OPIC Staff	Program Handbook
OPIC Project Case Studies	Press Releases
OPIC's FOIA Reading Room	OPICNews - OPIC's Electronic Newsletter

OPIC's Development Mission

OPIC's core mission is to support economic development by promoting U.S. private investment in developing countries and transition economies. In support of that mission, OPIC evaluates all projects it may support for their contribution to development in 25 areas, and measures the organization's performance on the basis of the contribution of projects OPIC supports to development. OPIC's methodology for carrying out that assessment is outlined in the 2003 Development Summary.

OPIC's policy with respect to its development mission is described in detail in the Mission Statement by OPIC's President and CEO.

OPIC’s mission statement continues concisely to articulate the purposes that Congress had in mind when OPIC was established in 1971, as well as subsequent expansions of its mission through amendments to OPIC’s authorizing legislation:

“OPIC's mission is to mobilize and facilitate the participation of United States private capital and skills in the economic and social development of less developed countries and areas, and countries in transition from non-market to market economies. In accomplishing its mission, OPIC will promote positive U.S. effects and host country developmental effects. OPIC will assure that the projects it supports are consistent with sound environmental and worker rights standards. In conducting its programs, OPIC will also take into account guidance from the Administration and Congress on a country’s observance of, and respect for, human rights. In accomplishing its mission, OPIC will operate on a self-sustaining basis.”
— U.S.C. Title 22 §2191

Since 2001, OPIC has refocused its energy, talent, and resources on its principal mission. As OPIC President and CEO Peter Watson stated when initiating this refocusing effort, the “key priority in refocusing OPIC is to enhance the agency’s consciousness of its developmental mission” and to strengthen OPIC’s “developmental mandate by examining critically each proposed investment in terms of its developmental impact.” OPIC will, Dr. Watson noted, refocus its “outreach toward underserved regions like sub-Saharan Africa, as well as countries and sectors where the developmental benefits are likely to be greatest.”

Since 1971, OPIC has accomplished its developmental mission by supporting more than 3,100 projects throughout the developing world. Over the agency’s 32-year history, OPIC has supported nearly $145 billion worth of investments that have helped developing countries to generate over $11 billion in host-government revenues and create over 680,000 host-country jobs.