Business news

6 Feb 2020

EBRD to develop new country strategy for Belarus by year-end

Suma Chakrabarti

MINSK, 6 February (BelTA) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will develop a new country strategy for Belarus for a five-year period by the end of 2020, EBRD President Suma Chakrabarti told reporters in Minsk on 6 February, BelTA has learned.

The agenda for this year is quite busy. By the end of the year we plan to start developing a new country strategy for Belarus. Most likely, we will wait for the end of the presidential election campaign and we will start preparing a strategy with Belarus for a five-year term after the Foreign Investment Council meeting. It will apply to the period from 2021 to 2025 and will describe the main areas of work on the policy of reforms and our investments, Suma Chakrabarti said.

According to him, this country strategy will reflect, first of all, the priorities voiced by the government and also a number of issues in which the EBRD is interested: working with state banks and enterprises, the work on infrastructure projects at both the national and municipal levels.

“The national level includes road and, perhaps, railway projects. The municipal level means water and wastewater treatment plants, projects to enhance energy efficiency in housing,” the EBRD president said.

Suma Chakrabarti expressed hope that the new strategy would feature one or two absolutely new areas for the EBRD work in Belarus. “The president repeatedly emphasized the importance of developing green economy in Belarus and we have already working in this direction. I think that we will see in a year how to develop electric transport in the country. I also discussed with the Belarusian president and prime minister possible projects in healthcare. We have gained necessary experience while working in Turkey. The country is building clinics on the principles of public-private partnership,” Suma Chakrabarti said.

The EBRD is an international bank, which facilitates the development of the private sector and entrepreneurship initiative. The EBRD shareholders include 69 countries, the European Union, and the European Investment Bank. Since the EBRD began working in Belarus in 1992, the bank has invested nearly €2.9 billion in 130 projects implemented in various branches of the national economy. In 2019, the EBRD set a new record of its activity in Belarus by investing more than €390 million in 24 projects in both private and public sectors.