The President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Sir Suma Chakrabarti, will visit two Western Balkans countries next week during the second part of a wider regional tour.
President Chakrabarti will visit BiH from the 30th to 31st of August, and Serbia from the 31st of August to the 1st of September. The President of the EBRD visited Kosovo, Albania and Crna Gora in late July.
The highlight of the tour will be the speech that the President of the EBRD will give in the Parliament of the RS on the topic of support to regional integration of the countries where the EBRD operates and bringing the countries of the Western Balkans closer to the EU.
Chakrabarti will also announce that the Annual Meeting and Business Forum of the EBRD 2019 will be held in Sarajevo.
The President will meet with senior officials in both countries, and discuss the growing importance of the Western Balkans for the EBRD, and the role of the Bank in the region.
The President will also meet with representatives of companies, the diplomatic community and representatives of other international financial institutions that are active in the region.
He will meet with leading representatives of the government in Sarajevo, sign the Loan agreement for financing the expansion of water supply network in the municipality Visoko in the central part of BiH, and give a speech at the reception on the occasion of 25 years of existence of the EBRD and 20 years of activity of the EBRD in BiH.
President Chakrabarti will meet in Belgrade with the Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, representatives of the diplomatic corps, financial institutions and businessmen.
Before the visit, President Chakrabarti said: „The area of the Western Balkans is one of our priorities. We remain committed to actively support regional integrations, including better connectivity in the areas of transport and energy. I am looking forward to further expansion of cooperation and talks on new ideas during my visits to the region.”
The EBRD is one of the largest investors in the Western Balkans, and has invested more than 9.5 billion EUR so far, through financing of a wide range of key projects in the sectors of infrastructure, energy and financial sectors. The EBRD has also provided substantial support to recovery after the global financial crisis and the catastrophic floods in 2014.
The EBRD is also active in the area of structural reforms, including efforts on improvement of the business climate and corporate governance, support for renewable energy, strengthening the stability of the financial sector (in the framework of the so-called Vienna Initiative) and encouraging other sectors such as agriculture.
The EBRD has invested 1.9 billion EUR in 133 projects in BiH over the past 20 years.
(Source: klix.ba)
