World Bank approves $230 million loan to help Ukraine fight COVID pandemic

The World Bank has constantly extended support and focused on helping countries address the unprecedented developments under the clutches of COVID-19. On Thursday, September 9, the World Bank announced to provide Ukraine with 230 million US dollars by December this year to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic as part of the global COVAX initiative, reported Xinhua news quoting Ukrinform news agency.

The report further stated that this was announced during a meeting between Ukraine's Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko and the World Bank Regional Country Director for Eastern Europe, Arup Banerji, in Kyiv. The theme of the meeting was "Emergency response to COVID-19 and vaccination in Ukraine." Speaking to the media after the meeting, Banerji stated that the bank is ready to provide $230 million to Ukraine to help the country at this hour of need.

During the meeting, both leaders discussed a wide range of issues from Ukraine's financial and banking sector reforms to the implementation of pension reform in the country. Under the "First Development Policy Loan in the Field of Economic Recovery," Ukraine's Finance Ministry had signed an agreement with the World Bank in the month of June.

Under this, Ukraine had urged the World Bank to provide with a loan worth $350 million to address the impacts of COVID, reported Xinhua news. The report also suggested that the Word Bank has been one of Ukraine's largest lenders and investors since 1992. So far, it has implemented more than 80 projects and programs worth $14 billion in the second-largest European country.

'World Bank granted over $15 billion in the last 15 months'

It should be noted here that in the largest-ever crisis response, the World Bank has granted over $15 billion in the last 15 months to help the world transition to recovery by saving lives, protecting the backward, and securing foundations of the economy, according to a report by PTI.

This represents a subsequent increase of more than 60% over the 15 months prior to the pandemic, the bank said in its statement in July. The World Bank, in June, sanctioned over $4 billion for the purchase and deployment of COVID vaccines for 51 developing countries, half of which are in Africa. According to the World Bank report, more than half of the financing was deployed by the International Development Association (IDA), the bank’s fund for the world’s poorest countries.

Image: AP/Arup Banerji/Twitter