|
EBRD Directors visit FYR Macedonia
A delegation of the EBRD Board of Directors arrives in FYR Macedonia on 29
March for a 2-day visit that involves meetings with Prime Minister Vlado
Buckovski, Deputy Prime Minister, Radmila Shekerinska, EBRD Governor &
Minister of Finance, Nikola Popovski, and other senior government officials,
as well as local and foreign business leaders, and representatives of the
international community based in FYR Macedonia. They will also visit a number
of projects in which the EBRD has invested.
Representatives of the Board in the delegation include Scott Clark, for Canada
and Morocco; Vassili Lelakis, for the European Commission; Jonathan Ockenden,
for the United Kingdom; Desmond O’Malley, for Ireland, Denmark, Lithuania, and
FYR Macedonia; Turan Oz, for Turkey, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Uzbekistan,
Kyrgyz Republic, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Serbia and Montenegro; Olivier
Rousseau, for France; Gerd Saupe, for Germany; and Hans Sprokkreeff, for
Netherlands and Mongolia. They will be accompanied by Claudio Viezzoli, EBRD
Director, Western Balkans, and Kenji Nakazawa, Head of EBRD Skopje Resident
Office.
The visit, which comes just months before the Bank is expected to issue its
latest strategy for FYR Macedonia. The visit is the first Board consultation
visit of the Bank after FYR Macedonia received the status of an official EU
candidate in December 2005 and will enable the Directors to get an impression
of the country’s ongoing reform agenda and the challenges it continues to
face.
The EBRD is the largest single investor in FYR Macedonia, with more than €410
million invested in over 25 projects in sectors ranging from supporting small
and medium-sized enterprises to general industry and power and energy to the
banking sector. Working with partners from the private sector, the Bank has
mobilised a further €440 million.
|
