Almaty, 8 December 2011. The Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) “is gathering pace as it deepens integration in post-Soviet territories, having financed projects for a total of more than US $3 billion over five years and having established itself as a successful regional development institution,” Igor Finogenov, Chairman of the EDB Executive Board, said at the High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development within the 66
th session of the UN General Assembly.
Speaking about the Bank’s role in Eurasian integration processes, the head of the EDB said, “Forty-six projects that have been financed by the Bank are being fulfilled and the value of the ‘project pipeline,’ or the projects that are being considered, exceeds US $8 billion.” According to Igor Finogenov, the Bank’s investment portfolio has “potential for generating mutual trade flows worth over US $1 billion a year.” At the same time, “an increase in mutual investment through the Bank’s projects exceeds US $1 billion.”
“In the last three years, the integration processes in post-Soviet territories have gathered high pace,” Igor Finogenov said. “They have been objectively instigated by the need for anti-crisis economic stimulation.” He reminded that in 2009 six countries of the region had set up the EurAsEC Anti-crisis Fund worth over US $8.5 billion and the EDB had been appointed its manager. In 2010 the fund provided a US $70 million financial credit to Tajikistan for twenty years and in 2011 it was decided to provide a US $3 billion stabilisation loan to Belarus for ten years, including a three-year grace period.
Igor Finogenov also told about the EDB’s cooperation with the UN Economic Commission for Europe within the UN Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA) and the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS). He said that the Bank was paying significant attention to the issues of managing water and power resources of trans-boundary rivers, assessing the effects of climate change on Central Asian water resources, and ensuring the safety of waterworks and the joint use of trans-boundary watercourses.
