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Some points of departure – interview with the new president of the EBRD

Bankwatch Mail | 14 December, 2012 | Download PDF

Sir Suma Chakrabarti became the sixth president of the EBRD this summer. Bankwatch Mail caught up with him recently to ask him his views on the bank’s operations in central and eastern Europe and, now, further afield, as well as on a few of the more acute issues that are currently high on the agenda – both for the EBRD and watchdog organisations like Bankwatch.

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IFI negligence rife at first major post-revolution project in Egypt

Bankwatch Mail | 14 December, 2012 | Download PDF

A USD 3.7 billion PPP oil refinery expansion in Cairo is accompanied by contradictory project documents, making a mockery of claims by the public banks involved to be committed to ‘good governance’ or democracy. Despite being presented as merely translations of one document, the Arabic and English ‘versions’ are entirely different – with the Arabic markedly cursory and superficial.

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Never a dull moment in Slovene power plant soap opera

Bankwatch Mail | 14 December, 2012 | Download PDF

On November 30, the same day as the national government was under fire in the most heated protests Slovenia has seen in years, Slovenia’s ministers of finance and infrastructure added fuel to the flames by signing contracts with Simon Tot, director of the Sostanj lignite power plant for the controversial EUR 1.3 billion Sostanj Unit 6. These contracts prepare the ground for the signing of a state guarantee contract for a EUR 440 million loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) for the project.

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Grey area alert – IFI sponsored PPPs the latest big thing in Kazakhstan

Bankwatch Mail | 14 December, 2012 | Download PDF

While it is not to be unexpected for the public to attempt to scrutinise the effective performance of governmental agencies, in recent years in Kazakhstan it has been far from obvious that many resources and services, projects and finances are being provided by international financial institutions (IFIs). Indeed, very often it is the IFIs that act as catalysts for various government programs, reforms and ideas that are subsequently adapted via the bureaucratic apparatus to Kazakhstan’s reality.

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Unsustainable energy future for EU neighbourhood region challenged

Bankwatch Mail | 14 December, 2012 | Download PDF

Europe’s neighbouring countries, from the Western Balkans to Ukraine, are intent on pursuing unsustainable energy futures that rely heavily on coal and nuclear. The draft energy strategy of the European Energy Community, recently open for public comments, is no big departure from the national plans, as Bankwatch found out when compiling comments to the draft – and, moreover, this reliance on coal and nuclear energy could end up receiving EU support and financing.

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