The coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic is having a profound and deeply damaging impact on the countries where the EBRD works, posing enormous challenges for policymakers across all our regions. Policy advice has always been a vital part of the EBRD’s toolbox to support governments and the private sector.
During the crisis, the EBRD can help protect the economy and promote further transition not only through our investments but also by providing governments and other state institutions with high-quality, straightforward and usable policy advice.
This coronavirus policy response centre serves as the analytical part of the EBRD’s Covid-19 policy response. We present the different ways we support the authorities in our countries of operations in designing measures to cope with the immediate disruption of the coronavirus crisis.
We also provide an up-to-date overview of the crisis-response policies adopted in the EBRD regions, as well as analysis of best practices and policy options in the countries where we work and in other selected EBRD shareholder countries.
The analysis here complements our work on the economics of the coronavirus.
Strengthening the SME framework in Türkiye: Strategic guidance to Turkish SME agency KOSGEB
The EBRD supported Türkiye’s SME agency KOSGEB in its analysis of data to identify signs that SMEs were deteriorating financially, and how it could use that data to design more targeted assistance programmes.
Developing local renewables supply chains in Kazakhstan
The EBRD supported Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Energy in developing local components of renewable energy supply chains with a policy aligned with international trade rules.
Assessing Montenegro's digital maturity
The EBRD supported the government of Montenegro in assessing the level of digital maturity of the country, with a focus on business-relevant e-services. The assessment led to a set of recommendations that will enable digital transformation and will further guide policy-making.
Supporting the digitalisation of governance in Moldova
The Covid-19 crisis has increased the demand for and use of digital services. This note summarises how the EBRD has helped the Moldovan authorities to prioritise digitalisation as part of its Covid-19 policy response while also laying the foundations for more ambitious policy work in the future.
Assessing the Covid-19 response in Azerbaijan
The government of Azerbaijan responded to the crises in 2020 by rolling out a number of programmes to support households and businesses. The EBRD partnered with the Ministry of Economy to evaluate how efficient the emergency response to Covid-19 had been, whether the existing measures should be continued or modified, and whether additional interventions should be made to help support the post-Covid recovery.
Enhancing the capacity of the Administration for Inspection Affairs in Montenegro
The EBRD supported Montenegro’s Administration for Inspection Affairs (AIA) in improving the AIA’s methodologies and processes through digitalisation and boosting transparency. The project helped to convince the AIA of the importance of enhanced methodologies and digitalised tools for well-functioning inspections and, thus, for the broader business environment.
Supporting the digitalisation of public services in Serbia
The EBRD supported the government of Serbia in improving the electronic delivery (e-delivery) of interactions and services between citizens/businesses and government. The policy engagement focused on enhancing the regulatory framework to enable e-delivery as well as increasing the nationwide use of e-delivery.
Digital maturity assessment of Tunisian investment services
The EBRD supported the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Investment Promotion (MEFIP), the Tunisia Investment Authority (TIA) and the National Registry of Enterprises (RNE) in Tunisia in analysing the level of digitalisation of investment-related services in the country. This policy note summarises the context of the engagement and the recommended solutions at both investment management and public sector levels.
Tourism sector support for Covid-19 recovery in Ukraine
The EBRD supported the State Agency for Tourism Development (SATD) in Ukraine in analysing the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the tourism industry and developing a National Tourism Action Plan. This policy note summarises the results of the engagement, including solutions proposed, structural weaknesses identified and lessons learned.
Supporting the development of remote identification in the Uzbek banking sector
The Central Bank of Uzbekistan (CBU) is developing a remote identification system (RIS) for the country’s banking system. We teamed up with one of the world’s leading e-governance think tanks, Estonia’s e-Governance Academy, to support the Uzbek authorities.
Covid-19 post-crisis recovery for the energy sector: views from decision-makers across the EBRD regions
We conducted a survey of senior decision-makers in the energy sector across the EBRD region, in order to understand better how to reconcile emergency pandemic response measures with the longer-term green recovery trajectory. This note summarises respondents’ views on the impact and severity of the crisis and gives an overview of their thoughts on the prospects for recovery
Supporting the digitalisation of Albanian SMEs during the Covid-19 crisis
The EBRD, through its role in the Investment Council, is supporting the Albanian government in the effort to stimulate the digitalisation of SMEs. The engagement covers an assessment of current SME access to ICT, as well as the creation of an online platform to better inform SMEs about existing financing and support opportunities.
EBRD supported the Uzbek authorities in running financial stress tests of the country’s main energy enterprises to see how they would cope with the Covid-19 crisis. The note presents the results, which highlight the need to continue pursuing energy sector reform programme, and suggests potential policy responses.
Supporting SME access to finance amid the Covid-19 crisis
A number of countries have introduced or scaled up state credit guarantee schemes to mitigate urgent liquidity problems and stimulate an economic recovery. Our policy note highlights the design and implementation aspects of these schemes.
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Business inspections are an important mechanism for maintaining fair and equal conditions for all market participants, and are even more relevant during crisis periods, when the informal economy tends to increase. This policy note highlights the EBRD’s contribution to tackling problems associated with the informal economy in Serbia.
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We monitor economic impact and policies adopted across the EBRD regions
Coronavirus country pages: building back better
We are monitoring, country by country, the economic impact of the pandemic, the crisis response measures being taken by governments and key ongoing initiatives as part of the “building back better” agenda. These reports are live documents compiled by our regional economists and will be updated regularly.
| EBRD Region | Economy |
| Central Asia | Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan |
| Central Europe and Baltic States | Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovak Republic, Slovenia |
| Eastern Europe and the Caucasus |
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine
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| South-Eastern Europe | Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia |
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South and Eastern Mediterranean |
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Other |
Building on our coronavirus country pages, we list the most used policy approaches adopted to fight repercussions of the coronavirus across our countries of operations, and we publish a database of implemented policies, country by country.
Green transition and the Covid-19 crisis in the EBRD regions: an overview
We provide a snapshot of trends and measures associated with the green economic transition and environment across the EBRD regions since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
We analyse case studies of policy responses across the globe
We summarise major policies put in place by Chinese authorities to support small and medium enterprises and discussing important lessons for other countries.
