The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will resume its investments in Czechia after 13 years, meeting  a request from the Czech government to help with recovery from the current crisis.

“The EBRD’s re-engagement will be temporary and not exceed a period of up to five years. It will be limited in scope and focused on the private sector. It will complement support provided by the European Investment Bank and the European Union,” the bank said.

"We expect that it [investment] could range between €100mn and €200bn per year. It can be more, but also less," the EBRD executive director for medium-sized companies and Southeast Europe Charlotte Ruhe said in an interview for the Czech News Agency. 

"We explained to the Deputy Prime Minister [and Minister of Finance Alena] Schillerova that if we and the government managed to change some rules and enforce reforms in some sectors, we could do more than without these changes," she added.

EBRD will invest venture capital to support innovative, high-growth SMEs with limited access to finance, which will lead to facilitation of the financing of the real economy.

It will offer Czechia its know-how in strengthening the regulatory environment for renewable energy and support energy efficiency investments with dedicated credit lines to address these challenges.

The EBRD stopped investing in Czechia at the end of 2007 when Czechia graduated from a fund recipient. The move was at the initiative of the incoming rightwing government, which argued that the country no longer needed the IFI's help.