Transport projects

Project Summary Documents

Project Summary Documents (PSDs) are disclosed for each project prior to Board consideration. They contain project descriptions, financial details, client information, environmental issues, tender guidelines, and contact details. PSDs for private sector projects are disclosed at least 30 days prior to Board consideration and for state sector projects, at least 60 days.

Project Summary Documents

Signed projects

Board approval is the final stage in the project approval process. After Board approval, the EBRD and the client sign the deal and it becomes legally binding. Signed project lists reflect year-end data.

Signed projects  (0.1Mb) 

Case studies

Promoting private sector participation in Russia - 2008

It is easy to see why the Russian rail sector is key to the country’s economy. The network covers eight time zones, stretches across an 86,700-kilometre route and includes more than 127,000 kilometres of railway lines. As the second-largest rail network in the world (after the US), Russian railways handle 93 per cent of the country’s cargo transportation. To finance rail improvements, the Russian government opened the rail sector to competition in the late 1990s. Since then private railway operators and owners of rolling stock have attracted a large share of the market by offering better services. Over 34 per cent of the total wagon fleet is now privately owned, compared with fewer than 20 per cent in 2003.

But even the private sector needs finance for investments, in particular in the midst of a global economic downturn. In 2008 Globaltrans Investment, one of Russia’s leading private rail freight operators, received €31.9 million from the EBRD to purchase new rolling stock, including open-top wagons and cement hoppers. In addition, the EBRD acquired a stake of 3.2 per cent in Globaltrans Investment, as part of the company’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the London Stock Exchange. This is the first ever IPO by a private rail operator active on Russia’s rail freight market.

A long-term investor in Russia, the EBRD has helped to develop the Russian railways network by investing about €413 million in seven projects since 2004. This recent project underlines the EBRD’s support to expanding private sector participation in Russian’s transport infrastructure.

Improving the road system in Kazakhstan

In a country bigger than western Europe but with a population of little more than the Netherlands, roads provide a vital link for Kazakhstan’s dispersed communities. But for Kazakh drivers, tight state budgets in the 1990s have meant that some 65 per cent of the country’s 23,000 km of highways are in poor repair.

In the west of the country near the Caspian coast, road quality will improve dramatically following an EBRD loan of €95 million to the Kazakh Government. The financing, expected to be bolstered by a loan of around €40 million from the Asian Development Bank, will fund the upgrading of a 900km road, improving links between Kazakhstan’s main port of Aktau and the regional centre of Atyrau.

Work on the route started in the 1960s but was never completed and much of the road is currently in poor condition. The new road will improve access to Kazakhstan’s oil-rich western region and the Caspian Sea. With oilfield development vital to the country’s economic growth, the road provides an important route for the transport of equipment and personnel.

 “With EBRD support, this project will play an important part in the upgrading of an important international transport corridor linking Turkmenbashi, Atyrau and Astrakhan, which is vital for the countries of Central Asia and Russia,” said Erik Khamsinovich Sultanov, Chairman of the Kazakh Government’s Roads Committee.

The project will also lead to greater recovery of road costs from drivers, with fees for road use linked to the type of vehicle. This will result in more sustainable financing for the road sector in the future. A grant from the EU’s Tacis programme funded part of the project’s preparation costs.

Russia: Take-off for Russian aircraft makers

Russia has a proud heritage in aerospace technology. During the soviet era, Russian companies were world leaders in the manufacture of both civil and military aircraft. But following the collapse of the Soviet Union, investment in this hi-tech sector fell sharply, leading to a dramatic decline in Russia’s ability to compete in the international aerospace market.

In the EBRD’s first venture in the aircraft manufacturing business, we are helping to revive this sector by providing Sirocco Aerospace Russia with a €36 million loan to finance construction of a new export-oriented version of the Tupolev cargo aircraft, which is currently undergoing European certification. The Rolls-Royce powered aircraft will be built at Aviastar’s advanced assembly facility in the Volga region, which employs some 7,000 people.

The company’s first export contract is to supply five aircraft to two airlines in China, the world’s fastest growing aviation market. The loan will also help to re-establish Russia as an effective, low-cost competitor in the aircraft markets in Africa, the Middle East and the Pacific Rim.

“The Tupolev is a proven aircraft, well-positioned to compete internationally. With EBRD support, we can move more quickly into these new markets,” said Dr Kamel, Chairman of Sirocco Aerospace.

The project is also expected to develop skill levels as Tupolev will benefit from the expertise of Western aircraft companies involved in the supply of parts and the certification process.