OREANDA-NEWS. EBRD President Jean Lemierre has praised the achievements of Russia's power sector restructuring as the reform process enters its third and final phase, which is due to culminate in the dissolution of the giant quasi-monopoly RAO UES at the end of June 2008, the EBRD press service reported. This is the deepest reform undertaken in a strategic sector of the Russian economy which will help create a transparent and competitive power market, Mr. Lemierre said in a message to RAO UES chairman Anatoly Chubais.

This means Russia is better prepared to attract the huge investments needed to modernise its power networks, improve energy efficiency and ensure it has the capacity required to fuel a surging economy, Mr. Lemierre said.

The EBRD provided RAO UES with its first EURO100 million restructuring loan in 2001 and the Bank's total investments in the Russian power sector amount to over EURO1 billion spread over 12 separate projects. The total includes EURO140 million which the EBRD earlier this week agreed to invest in the equity of the TGK-9 regional power generator.

When RAO UES first embarked on this restructuring, its aims were to increase private ownership, boost investment and stimulate competition in the power sector, Mr. Lemierre said. "The progress to date with this ambitious reform plan is very impressive and we are extremely proud to be associated with this process," he added.

Today, as the restructuring of RAO UES enters its final phase, we are ready to work with the autonomous successor companies which this process has created. We are already helping several of them to finance their priority investments and look forward to working with more of them, particularly to finance investments in an area which is a key challenge for Russia's future, energy-efficiency," Mr. Lemierre concluded.

An extraordinary general meeting of RAO UES is being called on October 26 to approve the break-up of the company next year.