Annual Meeting 2002

Closing statement by Jean Lemierre, President of the EBRD

Eleventh Annual Meeting of the EBRD Board of Governors
Bucharest, Romania
20 May 2002

You have had a long session, and so I will be very brief. First, I would like to thank you, Madam Chair, for the attention you have paid to this important session of the Board of Governors in Bucharest. I know from the discussions we had in Lisbon and here how much attention you - and Portugal - have paid to the region and to progress in the region.

We are at the end of the meeting, a meeting without Antonio Costa. We have done it without Antonio! That is a friendly remark towards Antonio. He has done a great job at the Bank. He has been the organiser of many Annual Meetings, and I am sure that he was thinking about us yesterday and today.

"... appreciation should go to the staff: they are young, good, highly skilled and dedicated ..."

Governors, you have expressed very kind appreciation for the work of the Bank in 2001. The management of the Bank is very grateful to you. That appreciation should go to the staff: they are young, good, highly skilled and dedicated. They want to do the job, and they do it. Your appreciation should also go to the Directors. The Bank would not exist and would not have been able to achieve what it has without the resident Board. Clearly we cannot carry out difficult operations, take risks, or make your opinions public without a resident Board. That is the strength of the institution, and I am very grateful to members of the Board for the work they have done.

I should like to take this opportunity to say a few friendly words to the three Directors who will be leaving us after the election: Erzsébet Gém, Serguei Ovseitchik and Bernard Snoy. They are more than Directors, they are friends. They are very different, with different careers and different visions, but that is the Board. These three Directors are a fine example of why the Board is a success, because they work together very efficiently. I am sorry that they are leaving because they are friends. They take with them our thanks and best wishes for the future.

I should like to congratulate the newly-elected Directors, some of whom are not new to the Bank. I think they are already aware of this, but let me repeat my strong and clear commitment to working with them in the next few years. That is the only way we can make progress together, and I know that we shall succeed.

"... an open Annual Meeting with all of you ... businessmen, journalists and NGOS - is very important ..."

I should now like to say a few words about the discussion and dialogue you have had at this Meeting, in this room and in the Business Forum. I believe that, as a result of this Meeting and this dialogue, the region has emerged stronger and the Bank has emerged stronger. That is why an Annual Meeting - an open Annual Meeting with all of you, with businessmen, journalists and NGOs - is very important. The region is certainly stronger. I have listened to every Governor, and there is an extraordinary consensus on what should be done and how it should be done, and the difficulties to be faced. Nobody has been giving lessons or lecturing others, rather there has been a sharing of experience and of difficulties. We have seen a shared commitment to bring money and skills and to deliver. The region is stronger today, and you are stronger because there has been a very good dialogue here and a very strong commitment.

The Bank has become stronger because of your support, and when we act, we act on your behalf. You and your countries are the strength of the Bank, your presence here with us makes us stronger. We are also stronger because you have told us what we have to do. We must, as usual, keep ahead of the market. But the market moves, and you are here to tell us how it moves and where the new needs lie. And that is clear - more equity investment in central Europe to support the medium-term convergence process, the environment, agriculture, regional projects, infrastructure and SMEs. You have said that country by country, and this is crucial because today the needs are not the same across the region, and we must adapt so that we always stay ahead of the market.

We are also stronger because you are supportive. Our commitment is to be more open, to improve dialogue with various communities and with our friends, the international financial institutions and donor countries. We welcome the fact that you are all here. I should like to thank you. I believe you are stronger after this Meeting, and I hope that we are stronger and thus better able to deliver the Bank's mission. We know what we have to do, and the staff and the Board of Directors will do it.

"... I wish to express my gratitude to the Romanian authorities ..."

May I make one last remark about the importance of this Meeting. All of us now know more about Romania, its leaders and its businessmen. We understand the situation, the progress that Romania has achieved and the commitments it has given. Strong views have been expressed here, and I am sure that you have had individual discussions with many Romanian officials and businessmen. We shall leave Bucharest, a beautiful city with marvellous hospitality, with a better view of the country, and I am sure that now you will be even more supportive of Romania. I wish to express my gratitude to the Romanian authorities, who have been very helpful and offered us wonderful hospitality. They have taken the opportunity of this Annual Meeting to communicate their policy clearly to a wide audience. We are very proud of this, and Governors can be proud of the opportunity an Annual Meeting provides for a country.

I should like to thank Uzbekistan for inviting us to hold the next Annual Meeting there next year. Mr Azimov has been observing very carefully what happens before and during an Annual Meeting, on the hospitality side and on the policy side. I am sure that the next meeting in Tashkent will be a total success for Uzbekistan.