EURASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK MAY HAVE 3 MORE MEMBERS SOON

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
July 20, 2007 Friday

Kyrgyzstan, Belarus and Armenia may become the shareholders of the
Eurasian Development Bank.

Igor Finongenov, the president of the bank’s governing board, told
Itar-Tass on Friday that proposals to buy shares in the Eurasian
Development Bank had been sent to all countries-members of the Eurasian
Economic Community and also the observers – Armenia, Moldova and
Ukraine – last August.

The possibility and conditions of becoming the bank’s shareholders
are currently being discussed with Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Belarus
and Armenia.

Finongenov said a working party had been set up in Kyrgyzstan to
prepare a decision on whether Kyrgyzstan should become a member of
the Eurasian Development Bank.

"In Belarus, these questions were discussed quite concretely with
Belarusian Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky. The head of the Belarusian
government said that Minsk is interested in entering the bank,"
Finongenov went on to say. He added that a positive answer had also
been received from Armenia.

"So, the preliminary work to expand the number of the bank’ s
members has been productive. Decisions are being prepared but they
will certainly be passed at a political level. Therefore, I cannot
set any concrete deadlines so far," the Eurasian Development Bank
head emphasized.

The Eurasian Development Bank was instituted on the initiative
of the presidents of Russia and Kazakhstan in January 2006. It is
designed to become a key element of the financial infrastructure
in the Eurasian territory and an effective investment mechanism of
developing cooperation of the countries-participants with an aim to
deepen integration processes and level out the social and economic
development of countries-members of the Eurasian Economic Community.

The charter capital of the Eurasian Development Bank is $1.5 billion,
the Prime-Tass economic and financial news agency reports.