By Anthony Williams
EBRD President Sir Suma Chakrabarti has held a telephone conference with other heads of leading multilateral development banks (MDBs) as they continued to coordinate their response to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on their member countries.
This was the second meeting of the MDBs, who are all responding to the needs of their members, following an initial session on 13 March.
The EBRD on 13 March also launched an initial €1 billion(US$1,080,340 billion) package of measures primarily aimed at providing emergency liquidity and working capital to existing clients. The Bank has said this is just a first step and it is prepared to do more.
At their meeting on Wednesday, the MDBs discussed their readiness to co-finance projects in order to maximise impact of their COVID-19 response. They were also working to ensure their governance approaches allow for swift delivery of their covid-19 financing .
The development banks are also sharing their analysis of the economic impact of COVID-19 in order to help best prioritise their response.
During the telephone conference, the MDB heads also discussed support for countries’ procurement of medical supplies, paying particular attention to low income countries in debt, and opportunities for co-financing.
