Tuesday, August 25, 2020

The Three Seas Fund is moving forward. Two new countries will join

SouthFront

 The Three Seas Initiative brings together 12 countries located between three seas: Adriatic, Baltic and Black. It covers 29 percent of the European Union territory, 25 percent of its population and generates almost 20 percent of its GDP. 

Despite their geographical proximity, the countries of the Three Seas Initiative are still relatively poorly linked economically, and in comparison to Western European there is a huge gap in terms of infrastructure.

"We asked one of the companies to create a report showing the differences in infrastructure compared to the infrastructure of Western European countries in three areas: roads, energy and digitization. EUR 600 billion are the differences between the Three Seas Initiative and the countries of Western Europe. Therefore, from the beginning of the Initiative, special attention has been paid to building closer ties between its members" - said Beata Daszyńska-Muzyczka, president of the Polish State Development Bank (BGK).

The three main areas of cooperation are energy, digital technologies and transport.

"Covid-19 times show how important cooperation and trust are, and how much we can achieve thanks to partnership cooperation. The 'Three Seas' countries are not big countries, but the entire region has over 112 million people. I like the comparison that it is the same as in Russia, only a smaller area. We still lack connections and infrastructure expansion along the North-South axis. Today, the construction of such infrastructure is of great importance, because perhaps it will be a cornerstone for us for a strong expansion, because it will be an important logistics chain" - said the President of BGK.

"In 2017, we as BGK took the initiative to help such an important initiative as a financial institution. Hence the initiative of the Three Seas Fund. We spent a lot of time traveling and convincing us to set up such a fund and how important it is" - said Ms. Daszyńska-Muzyczka. - "At the next summit in Tallinn, we will tell you what projects will come into effect. Please observe, because these are not only these bridges, but greater cooperation and what we can achieve together. The fact that these investments will be made jointly builds primarily a social community" - she added.

As part of the Three Seas Fund, BGK is currently working with five more countries on accession. It is estimated that by the time of the Tallinn Three Seas summit on October 19-20, 2020, at least two countries will formally join the Fund.