The EBRD has appointed Irina Kravchenko as the new Head of the Bank’s operations in Mongolia. She will be based in Ulaanbaatar, the country’s capital city.
Ms Kravchenko’s arrival has coincided with Ulaanbaatar joining the EBRD’s Green Cities programme. A Memorandum of Understanding paving the way for EBRD investments in areas such as green transport and safe water was recently signed by Deputy Mayor Batbayasgalan Jantsan and EBRD Managing Director for Central Asia and Russia, Natalia Khanjenkova. This marks the beginning of EBRD work in the municipal and environmental infrastructure sector in Mongolia, where to date the Bank has only invested in the private sector.
Commenting on her appointment, Ms Kravchenko said: “Mongolia, where we have invested US$ 1.6 billion, is very important for the EBRD. We support projects which help diversify the country’s economy such as manufacturing, and the sustainable development of the natural resources sector, which accounts for almost all of the country’s exports. I am very pleased to be taking up this post as Ulaanbaatar becomes the first city in Asia to join our Green Cities programme.”
Ms Kravchenko, a Ukrainian national, joined the EBRD in 1995 as a banker where she worked on projects in Ukraine, Armenia and Georgia; Central Asia, including Mongolia; and south-eastern Europe. In 2012 she was appointed to an Associate Director position as adviser to the Managing Director of the EBRD’s southern and eastern Mediterranean operations. During this time, she spent six months in Tunisia as acting head of office. Prior to joining the EBRD, she worked at the National Bank of Ukraine.
Irina Kravchenko has replaced Matthieu Le Blan who served as the EBRD’s Head of Mongolia for the last three years.