|
EBRD's shareholder representatives visit Poland
Representatives of the shareholders of the European Bank for Reconstruction
and Development begin a three-day visit to Poland on Monday. The Board of
Directors represents the Bank’s 62 public shareholders and approves all Bank
projects. The goal of the visit is to gather first-hand impressions of the
early impacts of EU membership. Poland joined the European Union on 1 May.
Members of the delegation will be Kalin Mitrev, representing Bulgaria and
Albania; Igor Ocka, representing the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Slovak
Republic and Croatia; Kaarina Rautala, representing Finland, Norway and
Latvia; Hans Sprokkreeff, representing the Netherlands and Mongolia; Peer
Stanchina, representing Germany; Tadeusz Syryjczyk, representing Poland.
During the visit the Board members will meet Poland’s EBRD Governor and
President of the National Bank Leszek Balcerowicz and representatives of the
diplomatic and business communities. One focus of the visit will be the
development in the regions, with sojourns in Krakow, Ostrowiec and Lublin
before travelling to Warsaw. The delegation will then travel to Latvia.
After a slowdown in recent years the Polish economy has bounced back strongly
with a growth rate of almost 7 per cent in the first quarter of 2004. In its
latest strategy for Poland, adopted earlier this year, the EBRD states that it
will maintain a strong focus on attracting foreign direct investment and
enterprise restructuring. In the financial sector the Bank will seek to
further increase the availability of finance to small and medium-sized
enterprises. In infrastructure the EBRD will continue to promote schemes that
minimise the reliance on sovereign guarantees and increase the supply of
long-term capital.
|
