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Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED) |
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In a way roughly parallel to the evolution of the Aga Khan
Health and Education Services, the Aga Khan Fund for Economic
Development grew out of initiatives taken for the Ismaili community
at the beginning of this century to become at present an institution
broadly concerned with the economic development of national
constituencies. It embraces three groups of companies in : Industrial
Promotion Services (IPS), Tourism Promotion Services (TPS),
and financial services. AKFED's projects have been concentrated
in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, but in recent years there
have been joint ventures with businesses in Canada and the United
Kingdom. Since 1963, the Industrial Promotion Services have
launched more than 60 projects in various industrial sectors
and in locations stretching from Cote d'Ivoire and Zaire, through
Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, to Pakistan and Bangladesh. The
Tourism Promotion Services have grown, notably with investments
in hotels and lodges in East Africa and Pakistan, in a conviction
of the important potential of tourism for the developing countries,
as a means of providing employment and foreign exchange, and
as a way of revitalising local architectural and craft traditions.
AKFED also provides an institutional umbrella for a variety
of financial and insurance institutions in Africa and Asia,
some of them dating back to the encouragement of small selfhelp
companies by the present Aga Khan's grandfather. In more recent
years AKFED has sponsored a Housing Development Finance Corporation
in co-operation with the International Finance Corporation and
a major Indian development bank. Pursuing AKDN's interest in
the welfare of rural populations, AKFED has also joined with
the Government of Gujarat in establishing the Gujarat Rural
Housing Finance Corporation. |
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This brief recital of AKFED's activities may serve to suggest
the rich variety of engagements it has with economic development
problems and hence the potential it offers as a complement to
future work AKU may undertake on economic growth. AKFED is not
a university and cannot do many things that a university can.
It can, however, bring concrete experience to AKU and in turn
benefit from the education and analysis of development problems
that AKU may in future supply. AKFED has been concerned not
simply to "make money", but as the recent brochure on AKDN declares,
it has aimed "to build strong institutions, capable of high
performance, and contributing to the long-term development of
the national and international communities in which they operate".
It has not only been interested in specific business ventures
but has also sought to promote enabling environments for private
business in developing countries. These broad concerns offer
many intersections of interests and purposes with those AKU
might reasonably be expected to have in economic growth and
development. We foresee much promise of mutual benefit. |
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