INTERVIEW: Egypt is EBRD’s largest investment country through 2025 – Managing director for SEMED

INTERVIEW: Egypt is EBRD’s largest investment country through 2025 – Managing director for SEMED

In its annual meeting held in October, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) approved its next five-year strategy, putting Egypt as the bank's biggest investment country through 2025.

During her visit to Egypt in November, Managing Director for the EBRD's Southern and Eastern Mediterranean (SEMED) region Heike Harmgart shared with Ahram Online in an exclusive interview the key pillars of the bank's new strategy and how Egypt is expected to benefit from the scheme.

She also unveiled the amount of finances Egypt has received from the bank since the onset of the pandemic, including the private sector and the banking system.

Ahram Online: Based on EBRD's annual meeting held in October, what is the bank's five-year strategy (2021-2025)?

Heike Harmgart: Every five years EBRD revisits its strategy in light of the recent updates, as the five-year strategy sets the direction that the bank will take in this period of time and outlines the key priorities to focus on.

The main and most imperative pillar in the new strategy is to be more relevant in green. EBRD wants countries as well as companies to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated repercussions in a green fashion.