Switzerland is a founding member of the EBRD and an important contributor to the Bank's work.
The Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) is one of the EBRD’s largest bilateral donors with cumulative volume of grants of more than €260 million for technical cooperation, investment grant co-financing, risk-sharing and guarantees.
Switzerland and the EBRD: at a glance
€260mn donor funds supporting EBRD operations
2.28% capital share
€7.38bn Switzerland-EBRD investments
SECO’s sectoral priorities include infrastructure, enterprise and financial sector development, and climate change mitigation through energy efficiency and renewable energy initiatives. Priority regions for Swiss bilateral funding include the early transition countries in Eastern Europe and Caucasus and Central Asia, the Western Balkans, Ukraine, and the SEMED region.
Switzerland contributes to a number of EBRD multi-donor funds, such as the Eastern Europe Energy Efficiency and Environment Partnership (E5P), the Sustainable Infrastructure Fund (SIF), the Small Business Impact Fund, the EBRD Crisis Response Special Fund (CRFS), the Ukraine Stabilisation and Sustainable Growth Multi-Donor Account, and the High-Impact Partnership on Climate Action (HIPCA).
Switzerland is an important source of foreign direct investment in the EBRD’s countries of operations. The value of joint Swiss- EBRD investment stood at €7.38 billion as of February 2023. EBRD finance accounted for €4.20 billion, and Swiss investment accounted for €3.18 billion.
The joint investment has been strong in regional projects, followed by Azerbaijan and Türkiye, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Poland. Broken down by industry, joint Switzerland-EBRD investment has been the strongest in the following sectors: sustainable infrastructure, industry, commerce and agribusiness, and financial institutions.
Swiss banks are also involved in the Trade Facilitation Programme, through which the EBRD guarantees the payment of trade finance instruments issues by banks in its countries of operations to foreign confirming banks. Since inception, the TFP has supported 2082 export and import transactions for Swiss companies for a total € 3,113.64 million, for transactions which were initiated by banks in the EBRD countries of operation and confirmed by banks in both Switzerland and abroad. Twelve Swiss banks and branches of banks have joined the programme as Confirming Banks (all figures as at December 2022).
From 2018 to 2022, entities from Sweden won 146 consultancy contracts worth €13,553,218.00.
