EDIFEE to allocate €470m to Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan

PanARMENIAN.Net - The European Development and Investment Fund for Eastern Europe (EDIFEE) has announced it will allocate a budget of €470 million for investment in the Environmental and Energy sector of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

According to a press release, the decision was approved at the Fund board meeting last week. The funds will invest in eligible environmental and energy projects under the requested criteria’s trough a duration of 36 months.

The fund has announced the decision was followed by the major success in the fund initiatives in the Republic of Moldova. EDIFEE has provided with financial support in structuring the financing of 11 waste management and treatment facilities which are as a part of ECOVERDE® national waste management project in the Republic of Moldova, with the supervision of the Ministry of Construction and Regional Development of the Republic of Moldova (MCDR).

ECOVERDE® Moldova investment is estimated at a total value of 370 million €, with first implementation and construction stages to start in the following months. The project is done in collaboration with Mentor Group Holdings Consortium.

The funds projects eligibility criteria are mostly to invest in economically low risk feasible projects with a decent capability to encourage implementation of EU environmental standards and a positive social impact (such as job creations).

For its investments in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, the fund is focused on infrastructure projects (such as-waste management, water treatment systems etc’) and also in renewable energy projects (such as Solar (PV), Wind, Biomass).

“Allocating a sufficient investment for Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan was done after careful analysis of those countries needs in environmental and energy investments. Those investments will create better infrastructure and services for large parts of the population in these countries along with a low risk investment for the fund itself. Beside the large volumes of the investment capacity, we consider it as well as a very good investment due to the successful financial structuring of ECOVERDE® waste management projects in the Republic of Moldova,” the memorandum for investors said.

The fund is addressing private entrepreneurs and governmental agencies to apply with early stage projects in the energy, infrastructure and environment sector to be included under the fund coverage.