YEREVAN, May 30. /ARKA/. Kazakh prime minister Karim Massimov,  who is also the plenipotentiary representative of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) Council, was re-elected as chairman of the EDB Council during a regular meeting in Astana on 24 May 2016. The Council also approved the Bank’s 2015 annual and financial reports, Review Commission and Internal Audit reports for 2015.

The Council also approved its updated Strategy for 2013-2017, which contains revised EDB performance indicators, by taking into account macroeconomic developments in the region, depreciation of EDB members’ currencies, as well as revised national and general Eurasian industrial, investment, and social policy priorities.

Under its updated Strategy, EDB is planning to expand the volume of its current investment portfolio to US $ 3.3 billion by end-2017, with regional integration project financing accounting for at least 50% of the total investment portfolio.

The targeted focus of the Bank’s project-related activities will be shifted particularly to projects generating integration effects. Being a supranational institution, the Bank will identify potential options of its member state cooperation and integration, establish ties between production chains in the region, including those in industry, and take further steps to identify and participate in infrastructure projects in its member states.

The Bank is planning to focus on supporting projects in energy generation, machine engineering, chemical, mining, and petrochemical industries, and infrastructure.

Certain mechanisms of the Strategy implementation were developed, inter alia in the part of mobilizing essential funding and liquidity in local currencies.

Under the approved Strategy, the Management Board of EDB is instructed to sign memoranda of cooperation with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the New Development Bank.

The Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) is an international financial institution founded by Russia and Kazakhstan in January 2006 with the mission to facilitate the development of market economies, sustainable economic growth, and the expansion of mutual trade and other economic ties in its member states. EDB’s charter capital totals US $7 billion.

The member states of the Bank are the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, and the Republic of Tajikistan. -0-