THE ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN BANK

FOR RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT

(EBRD) IN UKRAINE’S TRANSITION

THE EBRD: AN INTRODUCTION

The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has already become the leading investor in the private sector in Eastern Europe and in the countries of CIS. Set up with the specific aim of assisting the transition towards a market economy, the bank works with various partners. For example, the Bank works with foreign investors and local entrepreneurs, with financial sector, and works to remove infrastructure bottlenecks, which hamper private sector development. It is succeeding in its endeavors.

The project we finance include financial institutions, telecommunications, energy-saving, power generation, transport construction, manufacturing and agriculture. Taking into account the participation of other investors, the overall total benefit to the countries in which we operate is ECU 13.7 billion.

EBRD AND UKRAINE

The EBRD has been participating in Ukraine’s development since December 1991 and it opened its office in Kiev in May 1993. With its key mandate of helping to foster the transaction to an open market-oriented economy, the Bank has been keen to assist Ukraine in its initial steps towards independence, nationhood, and market system. But the Bank cannot work alone. It relies on the government to create the frame-work within which market economy will prosper. As the Bank’s President Jacques de Larosiere highlighted at the 1994 Annual Meeting in St. Petersburg, “ structural reform requires a stable macro-economic frame-work and the control of inflation……….. The success of economic reforms [also] presupposes sustained effort and coherent approach to mentation”; this has unfortunately not been the case in Ukraine until now. Things may be about to change. Since the recent election of President Kuchma, it appears that the tide is turning towards reform. The recent agreement with the IMF is testimony to this. With this new commitment to reform, the Bank in all its activities seeks to encourage the transition process. For example:

FINANCIAL SECTOR

Meeting the needs of private-oriented industries and small and medium enterprise is important for the development of a vibrant local private sector. Recognizing this, the Bank has at the heart of its business strategy a strong emphasis on its activities in the financial sector. This is because an essential ingredient to the functioning of any efficient private sector must be a sound of financial system. Without the basic financial infrastructure in place, transition cannot succeed.

The EBRD therefore works closely with domestic financial institutions. If conditions permit, the Bank takes an equity stake or commits long-term debt-financing to new or domestic banks. If long-term direct investments are not possible, the Bank seeks other means to support local business, while strengthening the domestic banking sector. In Ukraine, the bank is currently working on a number of such projects, some of which we hope will be finalized this year. Furthermore, the Bank seeks to increase the availability of much need equity finance for the local private sector by investing in various venture capital funds in the region. For example, the Bank took an equity subscription of ECU 2.9 million in the Ukrainian Venture Capital Fund. Signed in March 1993, the fund had already approved eighteen investments, in everything from nail manufacture to sail making.

PRIVATIZATION

The Bank has been involved in the Ukrainian privatization process since 1992. a good example of our early work in pilot privatizations is Ukrrichflot. Since early 1993, the EBRD has been working with the Ukrainian State Property Fund and the Ukrrichflot Joint Stock Shipping Company (Ukrrichflot), acting as the financial advisor for its privatization and to assist in finding investors.

Date: 2015-01-29; view: 508