Moscow, 19 September 2011. “I deem that our most important task is to foster modernisation and improve the competitiveness of the national economy, as well as to develop the common economic space and integration between countries throughout the post-Soviet space,” reported Igor Finogenov, Chairman of the Executive Board of the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) on Saturday at the Sochi-2011 International Investment Forum.
At the roundtable “Financial Institutions and Real Business — Partners for Investment. The Regional Aspect,” the EDB head said, “The Bank is now implementing seventeen projects in Russia’s various sectors including power and transport infrastructure.”
“We have projects in five Bank’s member states. In addition to Russia, these include Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan. Kyrgyzstan has joined the Bank recently and is awaiting its turn. To this end, our Russian projects account for almost one half of our investment portfolio, or more than one billion dollars in investment.”
Igor Finogenov reminded in this context that the EDB’s overall task is to finance projects that cannot be funded by commercial banks because of low profitability or long payback periods. “Development banks fill the niche of medium and long-term financing of capital intensive projects that are very important to the economy,” emphasised the EDB head. The EDB’s
mid-term strategy selects four infrastructure sectors as priorities for the Bank. The Bank has already provided financing for some transport and power infrastructure projects and is now considering telecommunications projects. Making municipal infrastructure one of the Bank’s priorities has become a new step in its development.
“The Bank offers a wide range of instruments, from long-term project financing to short-term pre-export or trade finance and loans for corporate development,” said Igor Finogenov. “In addition, we work on ensuring access of Russian companies to capital markets. To this end, the EDB has expanded its product line by arranging the issuance and placement of bonds with a view to enhance access to external financing resources. The Bank’s clients in this programme include the real sector and financial institutions.”
A key characteristic of the EDB is that it focuses on the development of economic integration between the Bank’s member states. “For this reason, we are happy to support interstate projects that foster cooperation between countries, growth of mutual investment, and mutual trade,” concluded Mr Finogenov.
