The Deputy Chairman of the BiH Council of Ministers and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of BiH Zlatko Lagumdžija, who is also the Governor of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for BiH, received yesterday a delegation of EBRD led by the President of EBRD Suma Chakrabarti, who is on a two-day visit to BiH.
Lagumdžija thanked Chakrabarti once again for projects and investments implemented in BiH so far, and said that the Bank in BiH invested around 1,5 billion euros through more than hundreds of projects with a focus on infrastructural development, support to small and medium businesses and strengthening of the financial sector.
He expressed interest of countries to continue successful business cooperation with EBRD in the realization of projects as well as to open new developmental and investment programs of the bank, and in this sense he welcomed yesterday’s signing of an agreement on a project for Corridor 5C, loan agreements intended for the reconstruction of water supply and sewage networks in municipality Cazin, and an agreement between the EBRD and Raiffeisen Bank.
Lagumdžija thanked the President of EBRD for the support and participation at the first BIH-United Kingdom Investment and Trade Forum that was held in London this past April, and expressed interest that at the annual meeting of the EBRD Board of Governors, which will be held in Warsaw next year, projects and business opportunities of BIH would be presented at a separate session that would be dedicated exclusively to BIH.
The President of EBRD Chakrabarti welcomed the initiative, and said that the presentation of business opportunities in BiH would be the perfect opportunity for a presentation of one of the countries in the region after the Balkan Investment Conference at a high level, which EBRD, through support of countries in the region, intends to organize at the beginning of next year.
Chakrabarti praised the remarkable progress of BiH in implementing projects financed by foreign banks, and said that it is one of the most successful countries in the implementation of EBRD’s projects in the last period, a country where in the last year most of the approved funds went into operation.
They agreed in the assessment that the results of previous cooperation of BiH and EBRD is opening doors for new investment cycles in the next period in various sectors, which would ensure the continuity of investing in the existing successful projects, and would open the opportunity for financing new ones.
During the meeting, they spoke about the initiative for BiH to be the host of one of the next annual sessions of the board of governors of the EBRD, announced the BiH Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
