EBRD to not abandon work on infrastructure projects despite COVID-19 - regional head

By Trend

EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) will have to continue to work on infrastructure projects during the COVID-19 pandemic, newly appointed EBRD’s regional head for Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan Ayten Rustamova told Trend in an interview.

According to the information, Ayten Rustamova has been appointed Regional Head of the Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). She will be based in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. Rustamova assumed her duties on 1 September 2021.

Commenting on steps to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 in these countries, Rustamova said that coronavirus showed everywhere what are the weaknesses and what should have been done stronger.

"I don’t mean EBRD or any particular country, I mean for the whole world it was a shock lesson. What was clear for us in Tajikistan, it is that we are not starting from the point zero. All our investments, for example, in financial sector paid back because our clients were more stress resilient. Or, all the water projects that we decided to do showed how important it was we because of hygiene," Rustamova stressed.

"Our economist and teams have developed a document where we say what needs to be done. But it is not rocket science. Basically it says to support again private sector as a backbone of the country, when people cannot travel, when human capital has to be able to work locally especially in my countries which have migrations. We have to help young generations to find work that they are interested in. Also, we have to continue to as much as possible with our infrastructure projects as hard as it is during the COVID-19 pandemic," she said.