17 May 2016: Reflecting on its goals for the next 25 years, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has identified the need to focus on three themes: building the economic resilience of EBRD countries of operation to withstand external shocks; better integrating EBRD countries of operation into regional and the global economy; and helping them combat climate change, food insecurity, and other global challenges.

Writing on the occasion of the Bank’s 25th anniversary, EBRD President Suma Chakrabarti notes that it plans to achieve these goals by: increasingly delivering policy reform advice alongside its project investment to enhance opportunities for systemic change in countries; helping countries to create more attractive investment climates; and examining the way EBRD operates internally, to ensure effective deploying of staff and resources.

The president adds that another of EBRD’s main goals is to enable the transition to green economy in its countries of operation, through: using private sector development to promote green and inclusive growth; increasing the number of its projects in green economy to 40% by 2020, providing financing for sustainable energy and sustainable resources; developing more local currency lending and local capital markets; and working on a wider selection of projects that focus on gender and inclusion, including helping under-served parts of the population, such as young people and less-developed regions. [EBRD Press Release] [EBRD Countries of Operation]