|
EBRD’s shareholder representatives visit Lithuania
Representatives of the shareholders of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development begin a four-day visit to Lithuania on Wednesday. The Board of Directors represents the Bank's 62 public shareholders and approves all Bank projects. The goal of the visit is to learn more about the state of reforms and economic transition in Lithuania as it prepares to join the EU in May 2004.
Representatives of the Board in the delegation will be Konstantin Andreopoulos, representing the European Investment Bank; Ohad Bar-Efrat, representing Austria, Israel, Cyprus, Malta, Kazakhstan, and Bosnia and Herzegovina; Scott Clark, representing Canada and Morocco; Torsten Gersfelt, representing Denmark, Ireland, Lithuania, and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia; Sven Hegelund, representing Sweden, Iceland and Estonia; Gonzalo Ramos, representing Spain and Mexico; Peter Reith, representing Australia, Korea, New Zealand and Egypt; Mark Sullivan, representing the United States of America; and Imre Tarafas, representing Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic and Croatia. They will be accompanied by Salvatore Candido, EBRD Director for the Baltic states, and Matti Hyyrynen, head of the EBRD Resident Office in Lithuania.
During the visit the Board members will meet Lithuania’s EBRD Alternate Governor Arvydas Kregzde, and Government representatives as well as representatives of international financial institutions, the diplomatic and business communities and civil society. The delegation will also visit several projects in which the Bank has invested and the Ignalina nuclear power station, which Lithuania has agreed to shut down by 2009. The EBRD is supporting the implementation of key decommissioning assistance projects.
In the run-up to its accession to the European Union, Lithuania has achieved impressive progress. Growth is forecast at 6.0 per cent this year, mainly driven by investments and exports. Successful privatisation projects helped lead to a net inflow of $714 million in foreign direct investment last year.
Nevertheless, accession to the EU remains a serious challenge and the EBRD stands ready to support the transition process. The Bank will focus on the support of small and medium-sized enterprises and the development of non-bank financial institutions (such as mortgage finance, leasing, insurance and private pension funds). It will also seek to support larger industrial and service enterprises with the aim of facilitating foreign investment, and it will support restructuring, commercialisation and participation by the private sector in infrastructure.
At the end of 2002 the EBRD’s portfolio in Lithuania was €270 million, of which 62 per cent was in the private sector. The Bank expects to continue to play an important role in the country after it becomes a member of the European Union.
|
