The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) marked a five-fold increase on its 2021 investments in Moldova, announcing on Thursday that it invested a record 525 million euro, totaling 106 million euro.
As EBRD extended credit lines to three banks for on-lending to SMEs, its investments in financial institutions more than doubled in 2022 to 80 million euro.
EBRD head of Moldova, Angela Sax, said that they’ve provided a lifeline to the Moldovan economy with the invested record volume, making sure the funds are disbursed at a record rate and ensuring that the invested money went to the real economy, benefiting at the same time regular Moldovans, who have been impacted significantly by the Ukraine war.
The EBRD press release explained that funds from the investment will be used to upgrade of key infrastructure and small and medium-sized enterprises and to support energy security during the turbulent year and energy crisis caused by Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Around 300 million euro of the EBRD funds were disbursed to diversify Moldova’s gas supplies away from Russian sources and facilitate supplies from European hubs, making energy security the largest sector to benefit from investments.
Another 100 million euro were lent to support the regional integration and trade flows with Moldova’s traditional markets and the EU by financing the roads’ rehabilitation near Moldova’s border with Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the Moldovan Food Bank’s work efficiency got boosted with two vehicles provided by the European Union.
The specialized vehicles equipped with refrigeration units that will allow safe transport of the perishable food collected by the Bank to social services throughout the country were provided as part of the ‘Partnership for Inclusive and Sustainable Social Canteens’ project of the European Union.
According to Valentina D’Arrigo from the European Federation of Food Banks (FEBA), the Food Bank of Moldova service has been their associate member since 2022 and she believes this donation will make a valuable contribution to the work of the Food Bank and help them in helping as many people in need as possible.
FEBA is a European non-profit network dedicated to food recovery and redistribution.
The project will, at the same time, improve the Food Bank’s operational capacity through an online platform where food donors will be able to indicate the quantity of available food while the 30 social services will be able to access it according to their location in the country’s regions.
The Bank plans to double the number of social services in the country.
