Twenty years of cooperation
In 2011, the EBRD expanded its operations to include the Mediterranean nations of Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, and Jordan.
Says Chakrabarti: “When you partner with the EBRD, you can always find good investment opportunities. It’s a lot less risky than going it alone.” He adds that, while Central Asia may be unfamiliar to Taiwanese firms, the region is expected to post economic growth of 9% this year. Taiwan could invest there with less risk by working together with the EBRD.
And in fact, Taiwan has very close ties with the EBRD. Taiwan and the EBRD jointly set up a Technical Cooperation (TC) Fund when the bank was first established 21 years ago, and Taiwan has provided help through this vehicle all this time.
To date, Taiwan has provided over €21 million to fund the implementation of 238 technical cooperation (TC) projects, mainly in the sectors of information and communications technology (ICT) and energy efficiency, particularly in urban transport, and projects to support women’s enterpreneurship and enterprise transition, managed by the bank’s Small Business Support (SBS) team.
In addition to the TC Fund, Taiwan has also made direct investments in EBRD-funded projects. Adding in further investment from other countries and sources, the total cumulative value of projects with Taiwanese-EBRD involvement now stands at €3.89 billion. The results have thus been outstanding.
Sustainable green energy
In the past three years, the EBRD has spent over €9 billion (NT$35.1 billion) each year on construction and materials purchases, much of which has involved sustainable energy.
In most of the EBRD countries of operation, buildings account for a high percentage of total energy consumption and lack modern energy-saving measures. A very promising solution to this problem is through the use of rooftop-mounted or building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) technology, which transforms solar energy into electricity. This technology allows energy produced to be used not only in the building itself but also to provide an energy surplus which can be sold back into the grid for external distribution.
In 2011, using funding provided by Taiwan, the EBRD hired a team of experts from the Green Energy and Environment Research Laboratories (part of Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute) to assess the commercial feasibility of BIPV systems. This work could lead to future investment projects.
In May 2011, the Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund (TaiwanICD) and the EBRD signed a contract to establish the Green Energy Special Fund (GESF) with an US$80 million loan from TaiwanICD. This fund will be used to support the adoption of advanced, energy-efficient technology by cities in the EBRD’s countries of operation, while concessionary loans will be used to support green infrastructure projects.
Looking to the future, Taiwan and the EBRD will build on their 20 years of shared experience to continue working together on joint investments, which will spur economic development in the EBRD’s countries of operation even as it provides Taiwanese firms with a foothold in Central Asian markets where they have heretofore been largely absent.