Cichanoŭskaja advocates assistance to relocated Belarusian businesses

January 21, BPN. Belarusian opposition leader Sviatłana Cichanoŭskaja has met with European bankers to discuss support for relocated Belarusian businesses, her press office reported.

Her meeting with Werner Hoyer, president of the European Investment Bank (EIB), and Odile Renaud-Basso, president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), took place on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

It focused on the current economic situation in Belarus and ways of overcoming the recession.

Cichanoŭskaja discussed the EIB’s and EBRD’s participation in joint projects with the European Commission to support relocated Belarusian businesses and suggested developing a separate assistance program for Belarus.

The bank executives assured Cichanoŭskaja that they had stopped all projects with Alaksandr Łukašenka’s regime and promised support to small and medium-sized businesses that relocated to the EU fearing politically motivated persecution in Belarus.

The EBRD and EIB suspended operations in Belarus following the post-election crackdown in 2020. The EBRD has already launched support programs for Belarusian businesses based in Poland.