The European Investment Bank (EIB) plans to sign financial agreements with Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Transport and the Development Bank by the end of 2024 for the development of the transport sector, European Investment Bank Vice-President Teresa Czerwinska told an interview with Daryo, Report informs.
She said that at the EU-Central Asia Investor Forum at the end of January 2024, EIB Global signed memorandums of understanding for project co-financing with the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Development Bank of Kazakhstan amounting to 820 million Euros: “This is expected to mobilize a total of 1.6 billion euros for connectivity projects in Kazakhstan. Similar memorandums were signed by EIB Global with the Kyrgyz Republic and the Republic of Uzbekistan, bringing total planned support for European Union-Central Asia transport connectivity projects to 3 billion euros. This is a key milestone in the implementation of the Global Gateway strategies.”
According to the EIB vice-president, keeping the goal of promoting transport projects in mind, the EIB is going beyond the provision of co-financing on favorable terms to share its long-term, global expertise in this sector with its partners in Central Asia: “The Bank has financed many transport projects across the world — in the past decade, EIB transport lending averaged 11 billion euros per year, roughly 18% of its overall lending.”
“In addition, the EIB has provided a local currency loan in Kazakhstan — the first time it has done so in Central Asia. This eliminates currency risks, a factor that remains essential for the EIB to engage with and support the local private sector.
The aforementioned memorandums of understanding are good examples of our future cooperation, which cover the EIB’s 1.5 billion euro commitment to European Union-Central Asia transport corridors. We hope that the respective financing contracts with Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Transport and the Development Bank will be signed by the end of this year,” Teresa Czerwinska said.