The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, started implementation of the Central Asia Primary Mortgage Market Development Project. The presentation of the project was held on 5 July in Tashkent.

The Central Asia Primary Mortgage Market Development Project is a new Private Enterprise Partnership (PEP) initiative with financial support from the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs.

Project covers four countries of Central Asia - Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyz Republic - and one country of the Caucasus - Azerbaijan. The objectives of the project are to create strong supply conditions to meet the high demand for mortgages, to strengthen financial institutions by introducing best practices in a new product area, and to broaden and deepen financial markets by establishing industry standards for origination and underwriting thereby enabling expansion of the secondary market. It is structured in two phases.

Ms Klepikova, head of project, said that Phase I will assess the current state of the market in each country, to identify the legal and regulatory gaps in the housing finance systems, and to develop action plans for improving the affordability and availability of mortgage funding for middle and lower class households.

Phase II will include realization of action plans emerging from the gap analysis, which may include legislative reform, market infrastructure development, capacity building for financial institutions, and public awareness building.

The International Finance Corporation promotes sustainable private sector investment in developing countries as a means to reduce poverty and improve people\'s lives. In addition to its investment work, IFC, through the Private Enterprise Partnership (PEP), executes a major donor-funded program of private sector technical assistance (TA) in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Mongolia.

The Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (seco) participates in the international community\'s efforts to help developing countries. Switzerland spends approximately Sfr 1.5 billion on development aid, a figure which corresponds to about 0.34% of Switzerland\'s gross national product (GNP).