ADB Approves USD 15 Mln Loan for Georgia

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved on September 24 a USD 15 million loan to help Georgia procure and deploy COVID-19 vaccines and strengthen its capacity to implement vaccine programs. 

The loan aims to support Georgia’s National Vaccines Deployment Plan by purchasing 700,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines and the necessary equipment for administering them.

The doses will be enough to inoculate around 300,000 people, some 8% of Georgia’s total population, the ADB stated.  

The ADB said the loan builds on a previous USD 100 million loan to Georgia to support social protection and mitigate the impact on businesses amid the pandemic, a USD 200 million policy-based loan for addressing public financial management and social protection systems, and a USD 2.5 million grant to increase COVID-19 testing capacity and procure medical equipment.

The disbursement comes some three weeks after the Government of Georgia preemptively refused EUR 75 million loan of “highly favorable” terms from the EU, citing its wish to reduce foreign debt and to avoid “political insinuations.”

The 27-member bloc had tied the disbursement of the loan, supposed to help Georgia cover its immediate financing needs that have increased due to the coronavirus outbreak, to the judiciary reform. The EU said after the Georgian Government’s refusal that Georgia failed to meet the condition and would not be eligible to the loan anyway.

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