Delivered by:
Mr Suma Chakrabartipresident of the EBRD
Place:
London, headquarters of the EBRD
Event:
Investing in the Western Balkans Forum
The intensification of regional cooperation is one of the greatest successes of this region
Prime Ministers, European Commissioner, UK Cabinet Minister, members of the governments of the Western Balkans and Croatia, representatives of the business community, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the EBRD.
It is a great pleasure for me to open the regional forum “Investing in the Western Balkans”. Its inclusive format – with the participation of all regional prime ministers – sends a strong political message about the region’s newly acquired stability and maturity.
Special thanks to the Government of Croatia for participating in this Western Balkans Forum and supporting this region. Indeed, today’s comprehensive meeting builds on the meeting between the EBRD and a number of Western Balkan prime ministers in Zagreb in 2010.
This region has been an important area of intervention for the EBRD since the early 1990s, when it embarked on the path to an open market economy and democracy. Today, the EBRD remains one of the largest institutional investors in the region. In 2013 alone, the Bank invested more than €1.2 billion in almost 80 projects in the Western Balkans and Croatia.
In implementing its unique transition mandate, the EBRD works with both the public and private sectors, and across all economic sectors – infrastructure, energy, financial institutions – as well as with foreign and local private companies. The latter includes SMEs, which constitute the true backbone of the economy of this region and which provide the largest share of employment in the region.
The Bank just approved a small business initiative, which aims to match money to the type of expertise businesses need. The Small Business Initiative is designed to achieve maximum impact by combining financing and policy dialogue at the national level, improved coordination between international financial institutions in this area and engagement of co-financiers.
We are determined to continue investing in all countries in the region and supporting their economic development. At the same time, in coordination with the European Union, we seek to promote regional cooperation in the Western Balkans, which is essential for their sustainable development and stability.
Of course, international financial institutions work together to support vital transport and energy links – and I will return to this. But the regional approach also applies to the pooling of co-financiers to create regional investment vehicles.
An example of such an approach is the new Business Development Fund, which I will sign later today with the European Investment Fund and Germany DEG. This fund is a key part of a regional platform for SMEs in the Western Balkans called the Business Development and Innovation Facility.
We launched this mechanism in collaboration with the EU, EIF, donors and all countries of operations in the region, to provide SMEs with a comprehensive toolbox of financial support, including venture capital, investment and credit enhancement mechanisms for commercial banks, but also a comprehensive instrument for regional policy dialogue.
The intensification of regional cooperation is one of the greatest achievements of this region, a demonstration of the new vision of its political leaders. In a few minutes you will be able to listen to each of the prime ministers present their country’s priorities. We hope that their first global meeting here at the EBRD will pave the way for regular meetings in the future to further improve regional policy coordination at the highest level. The EBRD will be happy to contribute in this direction in all possible ways.
Some important steps have been taken recently to improve coordination between the IFIs and the European Commission. The functioning of the Western Balkans Investment Forum shows that such an approach works well and produces results. More can be done to further improve coordination between beneficiary countries, as well as their common role in prioritizing regional projects financed with support from the EU, IFIs and donors.
The main objective of this conference is to promote the Western Balkans as an investment destination. During my first year in office as President of the EBRD, I had the opportunity to visit all the countries in this region. This is a truly fascinating region with great potential, including an educated population with strong skills and entrepreneurship and a diverse range of natural resources. The EBRD “is a bank” and we would not have invested so much in this region if we had not been convinced of its potential.
But alongside significant growth potential, during my visits I observed a number of bottlenecks in infrastructure and in the business environment. Ways to remove these bottlenecks will be the main topics of today’s forum.
Transport corridors and energy links are essential to the development of the region. They can open up the free flow of trade, increase competitiveness and opportunities for export growth. We would like to focus particularly, in the next panels of today’s forum, on the opportunities to involve the private sector in regional transport projects and on the challenges of energy diversification, including the role of new sources and supply routes.
But neither infrastructure improvements nor investments alone are enough. The business environment is important. For its part, the EBRD is working on a range of activities aimed at reinvigorating the transition, building on the findings of our latest transition report entitled “Stuck in Transition?
Today, I signed with Prime Minister Rama a pilot memorandum of understanding for our joint efforts to promote reforms in the judiciary, public procurement, corporate governance and other aspects of the business climate. investment in Albania. The MoU envisages the establishment of an Investment Council, which will facilitate dialogue between representatives of the business community and government with the aim of developing a conducive, transparent and investment-friendly business environment.
In conclusion, let me express my belief that representatives of the region will today together present a realistic and attractive picture of business prospects for foreign investors in the Western Balkans.
I am sure it will be particularly interesting for all of us, and particularly London-based and other international investors, to receive this first-hand information about the region. The EBRD is certainly ready – as always – to help the Western Balkan countries and Croatia realize their full economic potential.
