Officials at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development have promised to mobilize the Bank’s resources to aid flood relief efforts in Serbia, BiH, and Croatia. Visiting Belgrade on Wednesday, EBRD President Sir Suma Chakrabarti assured Serbian authorities that the Bank was ready to help, with a particular focus on the region’s economic and infrastructural vulnerabilities.
It will place a priority on the rehabilitation of damaged roads and water systems as well as damaged power stations and transmission and distribution networks.
It also aims to respond rapidly to the immediate needs of any of the EBRD’s corporate partners in the private sector whose activities have been harmed by the flooding.
“One particular area that should not be neglected is agriculture and agribusiness,” Sir Suma said. “Obviously, many farms have been very badly hit, fields have been flooded, animals drowned, crops damaged.”
In addition to providing finance to help the farming sector, the EBRD will also place an important emphasis on working with authorities to develop improved flood protection systems and help reduce the risk of such widespread damage in the future.
“We will do as much as we can to help this region… The first thing is to have a good sense of needs in terms of reconstruction,” Sir Suma said during his visit on Wednesday.
Speaking in Sarajevo, Libor Krkoska, the Head of the EBRD’s Office in Bosnia and Herzegovina, said: “We are ready to move swiftly and step up our activities independently and together with other IFIs.”
