EDB and VEB sign a cooperation agreement to promote promising projects

Saint-Petersburg, 1 June 2017. Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) and the Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs (Vnesheconombank) signed a cooperation agreement.

The signature ceremony took place in the sidelines of the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum on 1 June 2017. The signatories were Dmitry Pankin, Chairman of the Management Board at EDB, and Sergey Gorkov, Chairman of VEB.

The agreement envisions that the parties will combine efforts to enhance access to financial resources for initiators of promising projects and assist businesses of the EDB member countries in intensifying mutual direct investment.

In particular, the parties intend to cooperate in implementing the following projects:

• construction of a high-speed road with a bridge across the Neva River along the Finland railway bridge between Fayansovaya and Zolnaya streets in Saint Petersburg (the Eastern Chord);
• reconstruction of the existing railway infrastructure and construction of new facilities along the Obskaya - Salekhard - Nadym - Pangody route connecting the Northern and Sverdlovsk Railways (Russian Railways’ Northern Latitudinal Railway);
• construction and/or reconstruction of sections of the Europe - Western China international transport corridor in Russia.

The document also envisions cooperation in the area of trade and export finance as well as joint work on improving legislation governing syndicated loans in Russia, export and import transactions and other products.

“In the course of our cooperation we will pay particular attention to the joint promotion of Russian industrial enterprises’ inclusion in global and inter-country (for the EDB member states) value chains, the development of their export potential and import substitution,” Dmitry Pankin comments.

“VEB pays special attention to involving other financial institutions in the fulfilment of projects that are of strategic importance to the Russian economy. Syndication and co-finance are the key lending instruments in VEB’s new strategy 2.0. In this connection, support from partners such as EDB is very important to us,” Sergey Gorkov says.

Additional Information:

Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) is an international financial institution founded by Russia and Kazakhstan in January 2006 with the mission to facilitate the development of market economies, sustainable economic growth, and the expansion of mutual trade and other economic ties in its member states. EDB’s charter capital totals US $7 billion. The member states of the Bank are the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, and the Republic of Tajikistan.

Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs (Vnesheconombank) (https://www.veb.ru/) is a national development bank and one of Russia’s largest financial institutions. Established in 1924, since 2007 VEB has been operating under the special federal law on the Bank for Development. VEB’s supreme management body is the Supervisory Board headed by Dmitry Medvedev, Chairman of the Government of Russia. VEB’s development strategy until 2021 focuses on financing high added value industrial projects, infrastructure development, support for non-primary exports, the conversion of defence technology into civil facilities, as well as support for innovations and projects of the National Technology Initiative.

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