Azerbaijan, Baku, July 3 / Trend E. Kosolapova/
2011 was a successful year for Eurasian Development Bank, the bank said in the annual report for the previous year released on Tuesday.
According to the report, EDB's investment portfolio grew by one third to $3.4 billion, with eighteen new projects. Some of these projects are of priority to the Bank's member states and the advancement of their key regions and industries.
These projects include, in particular, constructing the Polotsk hydroelectric power plant in Belarus, investments in the development of the Elga coal deposit in Russian Sakha (Yakutia) and financing the program to reconstruct and modernize a gold processing plant in Zhambyl region of Kazakhstan.
A number of enterprises which have been built with the bank's financial participation were launched, or became ready for operation, or began supplying products to customers in 2011. These include the timber processing plant in Russian Tomsk, the Olim Textile spinning mill in Tajikistan, and the Tikhvin Freight Car Building Plant near St. Petersburg.
As of late 2011, the bank's portfolio was capable of generating mutual trade flows between its member states for a total of $1.1 billion per year. The increase in mutual investments between the Bank's member states backed by EDB's projects exceeded $1.1 billion.
EDB's projects had significant socio-economic and multiplicative effects, including generating more than $3 billion a year in gross output of the bank's member economies, in which the projects are being implemented, and an additional output of more than $3.7 billion in related industries.
In 2011 EDB also took part in the preparation of its stabilization program and its follow-up in Belarus.
Moreover, the bank continues to conduct intense research. In June 2011 EDB's Centre for Integration Studies was opened in St. Petersburg. Its objectives are to arrange research into regional economic integration and prepare reports and recommendations for the governments of the EDB member states.
The membership of the bank also expanded in 2011. The Kyrgyzstan joined EDB as a fully-fledged member in August.
Eurasian Development Bank 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 exceeds $1.5 billion. The member states of the Bank are Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.
