ArmInfo. The share of drams in the implementation of projects in Armenia will grow dramatically. Chairman of the Management Board of the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) Nikolay Podguzov said at the ceremony of signing an agreement on the provision of a credit line for $ 20 million to one of the largest banks in Armenia, Ardshinbank, answering ArmInfo's question about <the state of the Armenian dram in the Bank's loan portfolio>.
To note, according to the new EDB Strategy for 2022 - 2026, the Bank intends to significantly increase lending to partner countries in national currencies. According to Podguzov, in recent years, the demand for credit resources denominated in national currencies has grown significantly. According to him, due to the size of economies, today rubles and tenge prevail in the assets of the Bank, but the need for financing in drams and other currencies of "small economies" is also present. He noted that for this purpose, for example, the Bank plans to issue a bond issue by the EDB in Armenian drams, in order to be able to direct liquidity to the financing of Armenian programs in the national currency.
At the same time, answering ArmInfo's question about the possibilities not to be limited to financing infrastructure projects in "small economies" on the basis of public-private partnerships, but to pay more attention to project financing of specific enterprises, clusters within the framework of the integration strategy of the EAEU member states and in order to support the process reindustrialization of Armenia, Podgulov noted that this task will be solved in the course of joint work with the government of the country after clarifying the policy of economic development. " Cooperation with the Government of Armenia is very important for us in this case, from the point of view of what is the vision of the Government of the country on the development of the economy, how we will jointly solve the problems of development. This kind of communication is being carried out, and I am sure that we will solve these problems as well.
"Really large projects should be aimed at integration in the Eurasian economic space. Therefore, it is extremely interesting for us to implement so-called cross-border projects in this regard, which affect several states. This is the specificity of our work as a development bank, which presupposes a greater focus on infrastructure, on creating global conditions for the functioning of the economy, " Podguzov emphasized. As examples, he emphasized the global project actively promoted by the Bank, which will be of interest to Armenia as well, to create a single commodity-conducting network of the EAEU. "That is, a logistics system will be created for all five states of the Union, which will allow for food deliveries, to solve the problem of food security of the entire economic space," Podguzov said.
As for the restoration of the industrial potential of Armenia, the process of reindustrialization of the country, then of course, the Bank is constantly in a state of communication with specific companies. For example, the EDB is participating in a project to modernize the Zangezur Copper and Molybdenum Combine (ZCMC). He stressed that Bank is actively investing in financial infrastructure and, with the support of the Central Bank of Armenia, is actively working with the Armenia Securities Exchange (AMX), and there are certain achievements here. "This year we have financed the renewal of the rolling stock of the SCR and this is a fairly large investment. Thus, we have projects and they will appear in even greater numbers after we clarify the economic development policy together with the Armenian Government," the head of the EDB summed up.
