18 May 2004 00:50
IIB to resume financing
MOSCOW. May 18 (Interfax) - International Investment Bank plans to resume financing its member countries following
the final settlement of Soviet-era debt to the bank in March 2004, the IIB reported on Tuesday.
IIB was established in 1971 on the basis of an intergovernmental agreement between members of the Council for Mutual
Economic Assistance and carried out long-term investment financing in transferable rubles. The bank's activities
were paralyzed at the beginning of the nineties because of huge debts to international financial institutes, while the
IIB was owed large Soviet-era debts.
The Russian government restructured Soviet-era debts to the IIB in March 2004 enabling the bank to settle its own
debts to creditors, according to terms similar to those used in settling Soviet-era debt to the London Club.
IIB members are Bulgaria, Vietnam, Cuba, Mongolia, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Hungary and
Poland announced earlier that they were no longer members and talks are currently being held with these countries on
settling mutual demands. East Germany also pulled out of the IIB after German reunification. [RU ASIA EUROPE EEU EMRG
GVD ECI LOA BNK BG VN CU MN RO SK CZ EU HU PL DE WEU] me
[Interfax] |
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