Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is strengthening its support for green innovation in Uzbekistan by extending a US$10 million loan to the country’s largest private lender Hamkorbank. 

The financing will help domestic small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are responsible for at least 56 per cent of Uzbekistan’s GDP, invest in green technologies. The funds will be provided under the EBRD’s Green Economy Financing Facility (GEFF) launched in Uzbekistan in 2019 to support green finance.

Hamkorbank is the third financial institution in the country to join the facility that is supported by grants from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance and the TaiwanBusiness-EBRD Technical Cooperation Fund. International consultants, to be selected under the GEFF, will help Hamkorbank develop a portfolio of eligible projects and work with borrowers to assist with their green transformation.  

The GEFF is fully in line with the Bank’s target of making half of its annual investment green by 2025 and compliant with the goals of the Paris Agreement by early 2023.

The GEFF programme is part of the Bank’s Green Economy Transition (GET) approach. It operates through a network of more than 150 local financial institutions across 27 countries, supported by around €5 billion of EBRD finance. To date more than 200,000 GEFF investments have collectively helped avoid annual CO2 emissions of approximately 9 million tonnes.

To date, the EBRD has invested almost €2.7 billion in 104 projects in Uzbekistan.