Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 6
By Elena Kosolapova – Trend:
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Kazakhstan’s Tengri Bank signed a trade finance agreement, ADB said in a message April 6.
The agreement was signed by Steven Beck, ADB’s head of trade finance, and Mukhtar Bekkali, Tengri Bank’s CFO, on the sidelines of the International Chamber of Commerce Banking Commission Annual Meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The deal will enable ADB’s Trade Finance Program (TFP) to provide guarantees to support import and export transactions in Kazakhstan.
“This partnership with Tengri Bank will support trade and help create new jobs in Kazakhstan,” Beck said.
Since the early 2000s, Kazakhstan has pursued economic diversification to transform from a landlocked to a “landlinked” economy. In line with this objective, ADB cooperation with Kazakhstan in recent years has focused on transport and trade sectors.
Tengri Bank was established in 1992 under the name Dana Bank. In 2010, the bank entered a strategic partnership with Punjab National Bank (PNB) — one of India’s largest state-owned banks — where PNB became Tengri Bank’s major shareholder. Currently, PNB holds a 49-percent share of Tengri Bank.
Headquartered in Almaty, Tengri Bank is present in other major cities in Kazakhstan, including Astana, Aktau, Karaganda, Pavlodar, Shymkent and Temirtau. The bank’s name was changed to Tengri Bank in 2016.
ADB’s Trade Finance Program provides guarantees and loans to over 200 partner banks to support trade, enabling more companies throughout Asia to engage in import and export activities. Since 2009, TFP has supported more than 9,200 small and medium-sized businesses across developing Asia — through over 13,000 transactions valued at over $25.6 billion — in sectors ranging from commodities and capital goods, to medical supplies and consumer goods.
In 2016, TFP directed almost $3.1 billion to trade support through 2,079 transactions.
TFP complements its financial support with a regular series of workshops and seminars to increase knowledge and expertise in trade finance products and operations, risk management and fraud prevention.
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