The chairman of the multilateral Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) Nikolay Podguzov, in a meeting with Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, indicated that the EDB will most likely invest $3.5 billion in Kazakhstan’s economy in 2024, mainly in such “strategic sectors as transport infrastructure, thermal power, renewable energy sources, industry, agriculture and water resources,” the EDB press service noted Feb. 12.
Podguzov asserted: “The bank intends to facilitate Kazakhstan becoming a driver of rational use of water resources, being ready to allocate grant funds in the amount of up to $10 million for the development of regional centers of expertise on water-saving and energy-efficient technologies, and up to $400 million for projects aimed at introduction of digital water accounting, capital laser planning of irrigated lands and the creation of a regional production and service cluster to produce cutting-edge irrigation equipment.”
Though Kazakhstan assisted in creating the EDB, it is largely the child of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). The membership of the EAEU and EDB overlap greatly. The EDB has accumulated an investment portfolio of nearly $13.4 billion, though its authorized capital is $7 billion. It has lent or invested a greater multiple of its capital than almost any other development bank, including, it appears, the BRICS New Development Bank. It is much more active in not letting its money lie idle, but getting it into production.
Since 2021, Russian economist Sergey Glazyev, the collaborator of Lyndon LaRouche, has been the Commissioner for Integration and Macroeconomics within the Eurasian Economic Commission, the EAEU executive body. This positive lending policy of the EDB, which has now lent to or invested in a record 273 projects, may represent Glazyev’s influence.
