IFC has become increasingly active in China. The IFC takes equity positions in these companies. These are projects with anticipated cash flows that can cover debt-service repayment to lenders and payment of dividends to shareholders. They are without government guarantees. China continues to be one of ADB's largest borrowers.
Loans are largely for infrastructure and environmental projects.
Many U.S. companies have been successful in obtaining contracts under these loans either on their own or by working in conjunction with large Japanese trading firms. This is usually a year or two before the tender is formally published. OECF projects tend to be in infrastructure, environmental and agricultural sectors. U.S. firms, otherwise competitive on price and quality, sometimes lose contracts because they can not compete with such loans. Eximbank will not initiate a soft-loan offer.