WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The World Bank Group’s private sector announced Wednesday that it had a $ 4 billion funding platform.

International Finance Corp’s initiative focuses largely on private sector projects to manufacture products such as personal protective equipment, ventilators and other medical devices, coronavirus test kits, therapeutic drugs and vaccines.

The IFC is contributing $ 2 billion in internal resources and plans to provide an additional $ 2 billion to be provided by private sector partners.

The group also intends to work with other international financial institutions to raise additional funds, IFC chief operating officer Stephanie von Friedeburg told Reuters in an interview.

She added that IFC is also working with the global vaccine alliance GAVI to identify and fund projects that can boost COVID-19 vaccine production in developing countries.

The World Health Organization estimates that global demand for critical health products exceeds supply by more than $ 60 billion annually.

Initial products funded by the IFC platform will target immediate care needs, but in the longer term the platform aims to fund projects that enable health systems to be built in developing countries and their reliance on global supply chains to decrease, said from Friedeburg.

“We have to expand both the performance and the supply capacity in order to create a more resilient future,” said von Friedeburg.

Since some more sophisticated equipment, such as ventilators, is largely built in developed countries, some of the funding can go to those wealthier countries, but with an obligation to supply developing countries, von Friedeburg said

PORTFOLIO ‘TRIAGE’

The new platform builds on a $ 8 billion fast-track funding facility that IFC created in March to maintain business solvency and support jobs in developing countries. To date, the lender has committed $ 3.7 billion of those funds, including additional liquidity for existing customers and small businesses.

Von Friedeburg said there had been a “slight increase” in non-performing loans in its loan and investment portfolio of around $ 100 billion, in line with the experience of other international financial institutions and commercial lenders.

But she said it would take longer for the picture to clear and a lot would depend on the length of the pandemic.

“We did a pretty extensive triage of our portfolio. If you look at the assets that we’ve soft circled it’s probably 10% that we’re very worried about, ”she said, adding that tourist assets like closed airports were among the hardest hit.