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                                                                      Contact: Peter Riddleberger
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                                              FOUNDERS OF MIGA TO DEFINE POLICIES
                                                      IN MEETING NEXT WEEK
                                               /CJ

                    WASHINGTON, Sept. 11--Prospective member nations of the Multila teral
               Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) will meet here under World Bank auspices
               September 15-19 to define the new agency's policies and programs. The
               President of the World Bank, Barber B. Conable, will open the meeting.

                    MIGA is designed to promote productive foreign investment in
               developing countries . Creation of the new agency represents an
               international response to the decline in private investment and other
               non-concessional financial flows to developing countries since the early
               1980s. It also reflects a longer-term trend of growing political
               recognition of the contributions of foreign investment to development.

                    Countries that have signed the MIGA Convention will meet as the MIGA
               Preparatory Committee. It will · consider detailed regulations drafted under
               the direction of Ibrahim F.I. Shihata, Vice President and General Counsel
               of the World Bank. The regulations are intended to facilitate the prompt
               start of MIGA's operations when the requisite ratifications and capital
               subscriptions are obtained.

                    Delegates of at least 30 developing countries and 10 industrialized
               nations will participate in the Preparatory Committee. Capital
               subscriptions by all of these countries would provide more than 60 percent
               of the Agency's authorized capital of $1,082 million . Signatories as of
               September 11 in the order of their signature are: Korea, Turkey, Ecuador,
               Senegal, Sierra Leone, St. Lucia, Grenada, Netherlands , Jordan , Italy,
               Vanuatu , Zaire, Equatorial Guinea, Saudi Arabia , Uruguay, United Kingdom,
               Chile, Canada, Morocco , Benin, St. Christopher & Nevis , Bolivia, Barbados,
               Colombia, Cote d'Ivoire, Togo, Egypt, United States, Cyprus, Ghana,
               Indonesia, Switzerland, Pakistan, Greece, France, Germany, Bahrain,Denmark,
               and Jamaica.    Japan is expected to sign the Convention on September 12.

                    MIGA will assist developing countries both to attract the foreign
               investment that they want and to launch their own investments in other
               developing nations. MIGA will guarantee investors of all member nations
               against non-commercial risks (sometimes called political risk insurance)
               including restrictions on the transfer of dividends and on repatriation of
               capital, expropriation, breach of contract by host governments , and losses
               due to war and civil disturbances. The Agency's broader mission is to
               improve the attractiveness of member developing countries to foreign
               investment by conducting an investment policy forum, providing technical
               assistance to interested members on investment promotion and regulation,
               and by encouraging the conclusion of agreements among members on investment
               protection.
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