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To provide financial investments
that spur the development of emerging
industrial nations, since 2011 the
TaiwanICDF has been cooperating on
the Green Energy Special Fund (GESF),
established with the European Bank
for Reconstruction and Development
(EBRD), in hopes of encouraging the
EBRD’s countries of operation in Eastern
Europe, Central Asia and North Africa
to invest in municipal infrastructure by
applying the best available technologies
that could achieve significant levels of
CO
2
savings via preferential funding.
Cooperation with EBRD Leveraging
Multiplier Effect of Inputs
The goal of the GESF is to address
the affordability gap faced by the
EBRD’s countries of operation in
boosting their efficiency of energy
use. The program provides loans to
municipal governments
in developing countries in
Central Europe, Eastern
Europe and Central
Asia, promoting their
investment in energy
efficient technologies.
GESF sub-projects are
financed by loans, with
the principal and interest to be returned
to the TaiwanICDF in accordance with
the agreement with the EBRD and the
TaiwanICDF.
The GESF’s contributions in boosting
the energy saving and energy efficiency
of these regions’ public services
have received widespread attention
during 2014 thanks to the signing and
implementation of water resource,
solid waste management and smart
transportation projects in Eastern
Europe, as well as LED street lighting
projects in Central Asia and North Africa.
Three sub-projects have been signed
for since the fund was established: an
LED street lighting project in Almaty,
Kazakhstan; an urban roads project in
Chișin
ă
u, Moldova; and a water supply
and wastewater project in Vâlcea,
Romania.
At the signing ceremony for the
LED street lighting project in Almaty,
Kazakhstan, on June 10, 2014, EBRD
president Sir Suma Chakrabarti made a
point of thanking Taiwan for its technical
assistance and funding support toward
the GESF. The bank’s Twitter page also
took on a dedicated theme – “Taiwan
government helps Almaty shine even
brighter!” – to highlight the contributions
of Taiwan’s development experience
t owa rd i mp r o v i ng
municipal infrastructure
in Almaty. The project
is expected to yield a
70 percent reduction in
energy use by Almaty’s
street lighting system.
The project has gained
widespread attention
from many countries, and more than 10
countries are currently in talks with the
EBRD regarding similar lighting projects.
In addition to the LED street lighting
project, the GESF has also subsidized
an LED street light project in the
Moldovan capital of Chișin
ă
u and a
water resource management project in
the southern Romanian city of Vâlcea,
receiving widespread acclaim from local
governments and the European Union.
The project is the first program of
cooperation between the TaiwanICDF
and the EBRD to focus on energy
saving and carbon reduction. We hope
that marshaling Taiwan’s advantages in
environmental protection technologies
can broaden the scope of projects
through cooperation with the EBRD and
the GESF, assisting partner countries in
pursuing environmentally sustainable
deve l opmen t desp i t e resou rce
constraints, and thereby achieving a
synergistic, leveraging effect.
70
Reduction in energy use
by street lighting system in
Almaty, Kazakhstan
%
EBRD Green Energy Special Fund
Case Study
2