EBRD shareholders approve membership of Iraq
Shafaq News / Governors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) agreed to a request from Iraq to become a shareholder, the Iraqi foreign ministry said on Friday.
The request was approved during the EBRD’s 2020 annual meeting, held in virtual session because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Iraq submitted a request for membership in April 2018. The Bank’s Board of Governors has now agreed to the first stage in this process. Iraq will have to meet some pre-membership requirements before the membership process concludes with the acquisition of shares.
Mohammad Jaafar Al-Sadr, the Ambassador of Iraq to the United Kingdom, said: “We welcome the outcome of the EBRD’s Annual Meeting and the support EBRD’s Governors for Iraq’s request to become a member of the Bank. We appreciate the Bank's shareholders attention to our application and the work of the EBRD Secretary General and his team dedicated to processing this request specifically during this challenging time of Covid-19 pandemic.”
As a shareholder, Iraq could subsequently make an application to change its status to recipient country, benefiting from the EBRD’s finance and policy support. This request would be addressed by shareholders in a separate process.
The EBRD promotes private sector development and sustainable and inclusive growth through a combination of investments, policy engagement and technical assistance.
According to the Iraqi foreign ministry, Iraq's membership open the way to benefit from international banking expertise to develop the Iraqi banking system.
