On April 7 of this year, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan, S. Umurzakov, had a video conference with the President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), S. Chakrabarti, to discuss the measures taken in the Republic of Uzbekistan to counteract the coronavirus infection and mitigate the impact of global pandemics to social and economic processes in Uzbekistan, as well as the EBRD’s tools to support addressing of these tasks.

Chakrabarti highly appreciated the timeliness of the measures taken by the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan to protect the population from the global pandemic and mitigate its negative impact on the economy. He especially noted the establishment of the Anti-Crisis Fund of Uzbekistan to finance a wide range of economic and social support measures.

President S. Chakrabarti confirmed that the EBRD is ready to fully support Uzbekistan in this extremely difficult time through funding to combat the virus, to support entrepreneurs and measures to increase employment, as well as to ensure the sustainable operation of the economy.

In this regard, S. Chakrabarti informed that in response to a request from the Uzbek side, four Uzbek commercial banks will receive credit lines to finance small and medium-sized business projects and trade finance lines totaling USD 220 million through the EBRD Solidarity Package (the total amount of the Package is USD 1 billion).

At the same time, the EBRD considers the allocation of funds amounted up to USD 100 million to support the regional utility companies, which faced a decrease in utility payments from the population and enterprises.

Following the conference, S. Chakrabarti wished the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the entire population of the country to overcome all the challenges of the global pandemic as soon as possible and assured the EBRD’s willingness to comprehensively support Uzbekistan.