MOVES- Heike Harmgart is the next managing director of the EBRD’s SEMED region: Heike Harmgart (LinkedIn) has been appointed managing director covering the southern and eastern Mediterranean (SEMED) region for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the bank said yesterday in a press release (pdf). She will take up the position on 1 January. Harmgart, who joined the EBRD in 2006 as an economist, was formerly the EBRD head in Jordan in 2013 before she assumed responsibility for the wider eastern Mediterranean region. “I look forward to building yet further on the achievements of my predecessors in working to deliver robust and sustainable economies in support of the people who live there,” Harmgart said.

She will succeed Janet Heckman, who is retiring after taking on her role in February 2017. In an Investment Ministry statement released recently, the bank said its investments in Egypt reached about EUR 3.5 bn during the past 3 years in more than 80 projects in which the private sector got 70% of the portfolio. Heckman briefly discussed the EBRD’s policy engagement strategies is to get the right conditions in place to attract foreign investors in a Morning Routine entry on Enterprise back in July. We wish her well.

Heckman’s parting gift: A USD 150 mn green SME support package with NBE. Heckman signed a USD 150 mn loan agreement with the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) for the Egyptian bank to lend to SMEs working on green projects, according to Hapi Journal. The proceeds will allow NBE to open a USD 100 mn credit line to help Egyptian SMEs participate in energy efficiency and climate projects, we noted last week. The remainder will be channeled into two new EBRD programs, with USD 30 mn going to its Youth in Business project and USD 20 mn financing the Skills in Business program.