Investing in businesses to create jobs
Businesses need solid, long-term financing options. This enables them to invest, grow, break into new markets and create good jobs.
This is where the Swiss Investment Fund for Emerging Markets (SIFEM) plays an important role. SIFEM finances promising, sustainable businesses in developing and emerging countries. Together with its co-investors, SIFEM created and preserved nearly 600,000 jobs in 2024. In 2025, the Federal Council decided to increase SIFEM’s equity by CHF 75 million. This will enable it to stabilise its investment volume at a minimum of CHF 150 million.
To give an example, SIFEM has allocated funding to the Metier Sustainable Capital Fund II, which invests in African companies seeking to protect the climate through various means: e.g. improved access to clean energy, greater resource efficiency and sustainable production.
The fund also invests in the South African company Mertech Marine, which retrieves and recycles old undersea cables from ocean floors. These cables are often span thousands of kilometres and lie at depths of up to 7,000 metres. Mertech recovers these cables, dismantles them and recycles valuable materials such as copper, steel and high-quality plastics.
To date, Mertech has recycled over 130,000 kilometres of cable. This has saved around 350,000 tonnes of CO₂ as fewer new raw materials need to be extracted. This amount is equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of roughly 73,500 South African households.
Mertech employs around 220 people, including many workers who lack specialist training. The company is thus making an important contribution to reducing high unemployment in the region.
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Investing in businesses to create jobs
Investing in businesses to create jobs
