On 6 April, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) pledged to help financing firms in Georgia to combat the economic impacts of the novel coronavirus. The deal was struck between the Georgian Minister of Finance Ivane Matchavariani, EBRD Managing Director for Eastern Europe and the Caucasus Matteo Patrone and the Regional Director for Caucasus Catarina Bjorlin Hansen. 

“Under the emergency programme, the EBRD has set up a ‘resilience framework’ to provide financing for current EBRD clients with strong business fundamentals who are experiencing temporary credit difficulties. More generally, we are prepared to step up our efforts, together with the Georgian authorities, to support the economy,” said Patrone. 

The EBRD’s support includes measures such as emergency liquidity, working capital and trade finance. The Bank is working with its long-standing partners - commercial banks - to support access to finance for the private sector, especially for the small and medium sized enterprises. 

In addition, the parties discussed speeding up the development of several projects to secure job creation. For example, the Bank is currently working on designing a new framework to support all municipalities across the country with improved access to infrastructure. The EBRD is also working to support the upgrade of the electricity grid to further support the renewable energy generation sector.  

The EBRD is the leading institutional investor in Georgia. Since the start of its operations in the country, the Bank has invested over €3.7 billion in 249 projects in the financial, corporate, infrastructure and energy sectors, with 87% of these investments in the private sector. For the purposes of combating the impacts of the coronavirus, the EBRD made an emergency Solidarity Package of €1 billion available for its existing clients across 38 economies, including clients in Georgia. 

The current tally of infected persons in Georgia is 195, with 2 reported deaths.