YEREVAN, June 11. /ARKA/. The Eurasian Development Bank has funded a total of 80 small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) projects through local banks in Armenia, head of EDB Yerevan office Sergey Ignatov said.

“These projects cover almost all the fields, including industry and agriculture and their average cost is about $1 million”, Ignatov told ARKA.

Ignatov said EDB’s main requirement is the development of economy in Armenia or other member-states.

“Development means that each dollar investment brings about a multiplier effect in Armenia’s economy, increases its competitiveness and the country’s capitalization and GDP, which is an important indicator to us”, he said.

EDB’s current investment portfolio in Armenia is $79 million; the cumulative investment portfolio is $109 million.

Ignatov also said that Armenia accounts for about 52% of the bank’s SME portfolio and is leading in terms of number of EDB-funded SME projects.

Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) is an international financial organization established by Russia and Kazakhstan in 2006 to help develop market economies and boost mutual trade ties in member states. The bank’s authorized stock is over 1.5bln US dollars. The member-states are Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.  –0--