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EBRD Annual Meeting opens tomorrow

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Larry Sherwin, Deputy Director, Communications

Preparations are underway to welcome over 1,000 delegates

Response to global financial crisis is focus of discussion

Final preparations are in full swing for the Eighteenth Annual Meeting of the EBRD Board of Governors and Business Forum which opens this Friday 15 May and continues on Saturday 16 May.

This is the first time that the Bank’s Governors will hold their discussions at EBRD headquarters on Exchange Square and, in spite of space constraints in the building, some 1,100 external guests are expected, including members of official delegations, policy-makers, business guests, NGO representatives and journalists. The impact of the global financial crisis on the region in which the EBRD invests will be the centre of discussion at the official meetings – as well as the focus of attention at the varied series of panels and country presentations which make up the Business Forum.

Governors and representatives from the 61 shareholding nations, the European Commission and the EIB, will convene their discussions at the Opening Session on Friday with remarks from the Chairman of the Board of Governors, Brian Lenihan, Minister of Finance for Ireland; Paul Myners, Financial Services Secretary to the UK Treasury; and EBRD President Thomas Mirow. The official programme continues over two days with a governors' roundtable discussion and delivery of statements from shareholding countries. This will be complemented by bilateral meetings and consultations between Governors and the Bank’s senior management, all of which is expected to assess and give direction to the EBRD’s strategy and ongoing crisis response.

"Opportunities in a Tougher Climate"

Since last summer, it has not been “business as usual” for the EBRD. The Bank has responded to the evolving crisis with increased and refocused investment activity – as well as enhanced collaboration with clients, governments and international financial institutions. The 2009 Business Forum has been organised to reflect the concerns of the financial and investment communities in a year of dramatic economic downturn.

David Shirreff, Business Correspondent for The Economist, will kick off discussion at the opening panel on “Lessons Learnt from the Liquidity Crisis”. Prominent representatives from the public and private sector (including Grigory Marchenko, Governor of the National Bank of Kazakhstan; Herbert Stepic, CEO of Raiffeisen International and Gyorgy Suranyi of Banca Intesa, former Governor of the National Bank of Hungary) will discuss the impact of the global financial crisis on the countries of operations. In the Economics Panel, EBRD Chief Economist Erik Berglof will bring together prominent Polish economist Leszek Balcerowicz, Prof. Timothy Besley of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, and Zdenek Tuma, Governor of the Czech National Bank, for what promises to be an engaging look at whether – and how – the global financial system can be reformed. Meanwhile, Hugo Dixon, Editor-in-Chief and Chairman of “breakingviews.com”, will explore the regional financial and investment prospects at our annual Capital Markets Forum.

The global financial crisis is the thread that runs through these two days of events. Yet the Business Forum will move beyond the purely financial as it probes the crucial role of infrastructure investment in getting economies up and moving again. High-level participants in this panel discussion will present the view from the countries of operations; they include Vladimir Yakunin, President of Russian Railways, and Mykhaylo Kostruk, Director General of Ukraine National Railways. The role played by volatile commodity prices – and the risks of over-dependence on commodities – will be at the heart of an important panel moderated by Professor Tony Venables of Oxford University. Separately, governance issues and financial institutions will hold centre stage in our Legal Panel. Finally, the social dimension of the crisis will be the topic at the annual Women in Business panel.

Energy efficiency and climate change

Three years ago, the EBRD launched its Sustainable Energy Initiative (SEI), channelling investment to enhancing energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions. The results from 2006-2008 have been gratifying and better than expected: a Bank investment of €2.7 billion in 166 projects in 24 countries has attracted significant co-investment, for a total project value of €14 billion.

At this Annual Meeting, the Bank underscores its commitment to this initiative in a number of ways. First is the launch of the second phase of SEI, with some €5 billion planned for project investment over the next three years. From Wednesday 13 May, SEI facts and figures can be gleaned from a poster exhibition on Exchange Square, which focuses on individual SEI project stories and their impact on business, environments and lives across the region. At the Business Forum, there will also be a panel discussion which explores energy efficiency as a source of economic competitiveness and growth. And in this year’s Jacques de Larosiere Lecture, special guest Lord Nicholas Stern, Professor of Economics and Government at LSE, will discuss the risks of failing to tackle climate change. In his remarks, Lord Stern will lay out the benefits of making the transition to low carbon economic growth and highlight the importance of reaching a strong agreement on climate change at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in 2009.

Everything you need to know…

Complete, up-to-date information on all aspects of the Business Forum, including panellists, details on country presentations, and a full programme of events and networking opportunities, is available here. This year, the site also showcases a number of new features, including videos, podcasts and the EBRD blog – which, together with press releases, transcripts of speeches and official documents, make the web site a “one-stop-shop” for everything you need to know about the 2009 Annual Meeting and Business Forum.

By Larry Sherwin, Deputy Director, Communications
Photos: EBRD
14 May 2009