- EBRD President to pay her first in-person visit to North Macedonia on 31 May
- Meetings with government and private sector
- President Renaud-Basso will speak about green transition at Skopje conference
The EBRD President, Odile Renaud-Basso, is to visit North Macedonia on 31 May. She will meet the Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, government, and private sector banks and investors.
President Renaud-Basso will participate in the Skopje Economic and Finance Forum and give an address on sustainable growth and low-carbon transition.
She will also sign a new loan agreement with Stopanska Banka under a new EBRD programme called “Sustainable Reboot SME” – a €4 million credit line to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
“North Macedonia, where the EBRD is a top investor, is an important investment destination for us, as is the whole Western Balkans region,” explained Odile Renaud-Basso. “I look forward to discussing our upcoming projects with the authorities, including further transport improvements and private sector development. The EBRD stands by North Macedonia in its efforts to improve its energy security and decarbonise its economy, two challenges which are even more topical in the current geopolitical and economic context.”
The EBRD President’s visit comes a month after the Bank’s Vice President for Policy and Partnerships, Mark Bowman, also travelled to Skopje.
Some of the investment projects in the country being considered are: constructing a section in North Macedonia of the gas interconnector to Greece and a section of the motorway from Skopje to the border with Kosovo; improving solid waste management across the country; and a number of energy efficiency credit lines to local banks to be on-lent to local SMEs. EBRD loans will be supplemented by grants from the EU, the United Nations, Switzerland, Sweden, the USA, Norway, Luxembourg, and other donors.
Energy efficiency is only one area where the EBRD and donors work to help North Macedonia’s low-carbon transition. The Bank has already made a number of investments in the electricity grid and new energy sources, making the country less dependent on imported sources of fuel and more energy-secure.
The latest project to come on-stream is a 10 MW solar PV plant on the site of an old coal mine in Oslomej. It was financed by the EBRD, EU and other international donors, and will be followed by other solar power plants in the area and a 30 MW solar PV plant in Bitola.
Upcoming investment projects in North Macedonia are available to view here.
The EBRD is a major institutional investor in North Macedonia. To date, it has invested more than €2.2 billion in 161 projects across the country.