EBRD President Sir Suma Chakrabarti travelled to Bulgaria on 17 July 2012 for a two-day visit, his first trip to the country since he assumed the Presidency of the Bank earlier this month.
The visit underscored the EBRD’s support for Bulgaria, which currently holds the Chair of the Bank’s Board of Governors, who represent the Bank’s shareholders.
The President held meetings with senior Bulgarian officials, including the President of Bulgaria, Rosen Plevneliev; Prime Minister Boyko Borissov; Minister of Finance, Simeon Djankov; and Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism, Delyan Dobrev.
Sir Suma also held meetings with a number of EBRD clients and visited some of the sites in which the EBRD has recently invested, including, in Sofia, Call Point New Europe, a business processes outsourcing company in which the Bank acquired a stake last year. Sir Suma also visited the city of Burgas where the EBRD has made a number of investments and is helping the municipality to improve the quality of its public transport services and where the Bank has worked with the Burgas Water Company for some time.
The EBRD is one of the leading investors in Bulgaria’s economy. Since the beginning of its operations there the EBRD has invested more than €2.5 billion in over 200 projects in various sectors of the country’s economy. With a total project value exceeding €8 billion, the EBRD’s funds have helped mobilise over €5.5 billion in co-financing from other sources.