DUSHANBE, January 19, 2013, Asia-Plus -- The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) financed a record number of projects in 2012, providing strong support in a particularly difficult environment for the countries where it invests, press release issued by the EBRD said.

Bolstered by healthy profits in 2012, the Bank remains well-equipped to reach out to emerging economies again this year and to help them prepare for economic recovery when it finally emerges.  The Bank expects to have made a 2012 net profit of around €1 billion, after €173 million in 2011.

According to preliminary estimates, the EBRD invested €8.7 billion in its traditional area of operations in 2012, financing an unprecedented 388 individual projects.  That compared with an investment volume of €9 billion in 2011 in 380 projects.

On top of the investments in its traditional region, the EBRD reportedly also launched its expansion into the southern and eastern Mediterranean in 2012, making commitments worth €181 million in six projects.

The Bank has begun investing in Egypt, Morocco, Jordan and Tunisia, supporting the process of economic modernization in the wake of political changes in the Middle East and North Africa.

By 2015, it expects to be investing up to €2.5 billion a year in this new region.

Looking ahead to 2013 and beyond, the EBRD will put a strong emphasis on financing projects that can prepare the way for recovery and more robust growth in the future.

Countries in central and southern and eastern Europe have been hit especially hard by the most recent turmoil in the eurozone.  The EBRD is aiming to invest €4 billion in this region alone in the next two years, a part of a wider joint action plan together with the World Bank and the European Investment Bank.

Via its projects and in its discussions with authorities, the EBRD will work to help put in place policies that will further improve the business climate and restore investor confidence.

In 2012, Russia remained the single largest recipient of investments, with an estimated annual business volume of €2.6 billion, 30 per cent of the total.  Turkey, where the EBRD began investing only in 2009, saw investments of €1.0 billion.

In the EBRD’s Early Transition Countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan), the least advanced countries where the Bank invests, financing remained a strong €1.06 billion, up five per cent from the previous year.

The number of projects in the western Balkans remained high at 64, after 65 in 2011, for a total volume of €663 million, after €987 million in 2011.

Investments under the EBRD’s Sustainable Energy Initiative, which finances energy efficiency projects and promotes the development of renewable energy sources, totaled an estimated €2.3 billion, accounting for 26 per cent of total EBRD financing in 2012.

The EBRD, owned by 64 countries and two intergovernmental institutions, is supporting the development of market economies and democracies.