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Lemierre: EBRD finances 'at the frontier'

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EBRD President, Jean Lemierre, makes his opening statement at the annual meeting of the Board of Governors.

The Pyramic centre, venue for the meeting.

Speakers at the opening session of the Board of Governors meeting.

The EBRD’s 16th Annual Meeting is being held in Tatarstan because the Russian republic represents “both the frontier and the heartland of Russia”, said Bank President Jean Lemierre in his opening statement to the EBRD Board of Governors today.

Tatarstan “represents the future of Russia and the future of the EBRD”, Mr Lemierre continued in his address to representatives of the 61 countries that sit on the EBRD Board along with the European Community and the European Investment Bank.

That’s because in all the countries in which the EBRD works, it is “financing at the frontier”, he said, reiterating the theme of the Annual Meeting underway in Tatarstan’s capital, Kazan.

“We are focusing on the geographical areas that most need investment to accelerate their transition to market economies, and on new areas of activity to meet the new needs in all our countries of operations,” Mr Lemierre explained. In Russia this has meant investing in:

• infrastructure in transportation and in the power sector-- €1billion to modernise and upgrade it
• financing banks to finance industries, small businesses and mortgages for families, and investing in equity in supermarkets
• a discount airline – a first in Russia
• Russia’s multinational high-tech company
• and helping cities across Russia to provide better municipal services such as trams and clean water and district heating to save energy.

He noted that EBRD business in Russia doubled to almost €2 billion in 2006, representing 38 per cent of the Bank’s business volume last yea. The Bank had greatly expanded its presence in Russia’s regions outside Moscow and St Petersburg by opening new offices in Yekaterinaberg, Krasnoyarsk, Samara and Rostov-on-Don.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, represented at the Board meeting by Trade and Economic Development Minister German Gref who is Russia's EBRD Board Governor, said in his message that holding the EBRD meeting in Kazan “without doubt reflects the profound interest of the world financial community in our country and the investment opportunities there.

“We believe that holding this respected meeting in Kazan marks the beginning of the implementation of the Bank’s policy of a ‘shift to east and south’, as set out in the EBRD strategy, and a real advance by the Bank in the regions of Russia as part of that policy.”

Paavo Väyrynen, Chair of the EBRD Board of Governors and Finland’s Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, said it was significant that across the EBRD region of operations, the largest share of the Bank’s business activity in 2006 was in countries at the early or intermediate stages of transition to market economies.

“Not surprisingly, as the balance of operations has shifted, the actual number of projects in the very small range of €5 million or less has increased significantly. Over one-third of the signings were within this category,” said Mr Väyrynen.

“I note that another welcome development is the increase of Bank’s investments in the form of equity stakes, which allows the Bank to be an active shareholder and thus influence better the transition process.”

Transcripts from the Board of Governors meeting

By Kate Dunn, Senior Communications Adviser
20 May 2007