The TaiwanICDF and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) signed agreements on 19 May, 2011, under which the TaiwanICDF will pledge US$80 million towards the Green Energy Special Fund (GESF) and US$20 million towards the Financial Intermediary Investment Special Fund—Small Business Account III (FIISF-SBA III). The contribution was confirmed and announced during the EBRD’s 20th Annual Meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan.

Alongside co-funding from the EBRD and other donors, the TaiwanICDF’s contribution to the GESF will be used to implement a wide range of financing instruments, promote energy efficiency and develop renewable energy in Central Europe, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. This funding commitment represents the first step taken between the TaiwanICDF and the EBRD to expand their long-standing cooperation into areas focusing on energy efficiency and sustainable development. Specifically, the GESF will provide municipal governments with the financing to acquire and utilize the best available sustainable technologies, which will significantly increase energy efficiency. Such green technologies, whose introduction will prevent authorities from becoming locked into outdated, high-carbon options when investing in municipal infrastructure, will include LED street lights, solar-powered technology, smart meters, public transportation and electric systems.

Elsewhere, the TaiwanICDF and the EBRD have for some years cooperated to promote MSME development throughout Central Europe, Eastern Europe and Central Asia through the EBRD-administered Financial Intermediary Investment Special Fund—Small Business Account (FIISF-SBA). With financing for the first and second phases of the FIISF-SBA fully committed through projects in countries such as Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Kyrgyz and Turkey, support to the FIISF-SBA during its third phase will now enable local banks to meet the increasing demand for development loans within the private sector and maintain the availability of credit to small businesses, female entrepreneurs and farmers at a time when lending resources remain scarce. In many of these economies, where MSMEs represent a major driving force behind economic growth and account for a large proportion of total employment, injections of funding through the FIISF-SBA III will play a particularly meaningful role in supporting the ongoing development of the MSME sector.

Established in 1991 and headquartered in London, UK, the EBRD is the region’s foremost development agency. The Bank works throughout Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and in the CIS to assist countries in transition to move from planned to market-oriented economies, and towards democratic, plural social structures. The 63 members of EBRD include the European Union and the European Investment Bank. Twenty-nine of these members are recipients of financing from the Bank.

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• Update: 2018/03/02
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