TASHKENT

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Uzbekistan’s second-largest lender, Uzpromstroybank, will provide new funds to support and strengthen a local pharmaceutical producer in order to meet growing market demand during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The EBRD will finance half of a 7.82 million loan euro provided by Uzpromstroybank to medical producer Samarkand England Eco-Medical (SEEM). This will be the first transaction under a 50:50 risk-sharing framework signed between the two banks, the EBRD said.

SEEM, which manufactures intravenous fluids such as sodium chloride, glucose and amino acids, will use the loan to expand its production facility and to start manufacturing generic and specialised medicines in tablets and capsules.

The financial support to SEEM, the second-largest producer of intravenous solutions in Uzbekistan, will increase the availability of affordable medical goods in Uzbekistan.

Uzpromstroybank operates a network of 45 branches and 170 outlets across the populous Central Asian country.

The project is in line with the EBRD’s strategy for Uzbekistan, aimed at enhancing the role of the private sector in the national economy. It will also help to reduce the reliance on foreign supplies in the country, where 75 percent of medical goods are imported.

To date, the EBRD has invested almost 2.6 billion euros in 101 projects in Uzbekistan.

Rated ‘BB-‘ by Fitch Ratings and S&P, Uzpromstroybank, also known as Uzsanoatqurilishbank, is among several state-owned banks due to be privatised under the government programme.

The EBRD said in June it would take part in the pre-privatisation process of Uzpromstroybank by providing a $50 million credit line and eventually become one of the bank’s shareholders.

Earlier this year, the EBRD also provided Uzpromstroybank with a $45 million loan to expand its Green Economy Financing Facility, launched in Uzbekistan in 2019, to support green finance for small private-sector companies investing in green technology solutions. The loan will also help the bank in lending to domestic small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) willing to invest in climate mitigation and adaptation technologies and services.