GLOBAL – European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has committed to increasing its annual funding as from 2021 to 2025 to help economies recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bank has also unveiled an ambitious plan to become a majority green bank by 2025 and increasing the share of green financing to at least 50% of its total financing by 2025.

In response to the COVID-19 crisis, the EBRD committed to enhancing its activities in the following sectors: financial institutions, industry, commerce and agribusiness and sustainable infrastructure.

 The Bank says it will focus on accelerating the pace of recovery caused by the pandemic, and strengthening the private sector by increasing its share in the bank’s investments to more than 75%.

The new strategy will see a rise in the bank’s investments from the previous years, as it seeks to increase its annual funding to nearly 13 billion euros compared to the previous record level of 10 billion euros in 2019, enabling it to address the challenges amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

This commitment was made during the Bank’s annual meeting where French finance expert Odile Renaud Basso was elected as the first woman president of the European multilateral finance instiution.

Currently Director-General at the French Treasury, Ms Renaud-Basso replaces Sir Suma Chakrabarti, who stepped down in July after serving two full four-year terms.

Following her election, Ms Renaud-Basso said: “It is a great honour for me to have been elected as the new President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, a truly unique institution.”

As Director General at the French Treasury, Ms Renaud-Basso has overseen the development of France’s economic policies, leading on European and international financial affairs, trade policies, financial regulation and debt management.

In this position, she also served as Vice-President of the European Economic and Financial Committee, deputy to the G7 and G20 groups and French Governor or Alternate Governor of the World Bank, EBRD and African Development Bank. She is also Chair of the Paris Club.

“I look forward to working with all shareholders, the management and the staff in the coming months, to implement the ambitious roadmap that was just agreed at the Annual Meeting,” Ms Renaud-Basso said.

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