U.S. Government Issues $9 Million Loan to Build Movie Theaters in Pakistan

The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a U.S. government agency, issued a $9 million loan to Cinepax Corporation to expand its movie theater chain in Pakistan. In its description of the loan, OPIC stated “the project will help grow Pakistan’s services industry and in turn facilitate further economic growth.” This week, the Karachi Cinepax will be showing summer blockbusters Godzilla, How to Train your Dragon 2, and X-Men: Days of Future Past. OPIC describes its mission as mobilizing “private capital to help solve critical development challenges.”  Typically, this means helping developing countries build infrastructure projects such as roads, power plants, or telecommunications. It now appears that movie theaters fall into the definition of “critical development challenges” as well.