High-level event will gather prime ministers, government officials, investors and leading entrepreneurs
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is hosting the Western Balkans Investment Summit at its headquarters in London on 22 February.
The Summit will be attended by the prime ministers from the region, comprising Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, FYR Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.
EBRD President Sir Suma Chakrabarti and Lord Maude of Horsham, Minister of State for Trade and Investment, United Kingdom, will open the event with key note addresses. After a prime ministers’ session government ministers, political decision-makers and leading entrepreneurs and investors will take part in three discussions. The panels will debate the development of transport links, the potential for renewable energy and the privatisation agenda in the Western Balkans.
The EBRD-backed SEE Link, an innovative regional platform for trading securities listed on the Bulgarian, Croatian and Macedonian stock exchanges, will be launched during the Summit. The Serbian and Slovenian bourses will confirm their intention to join the initiative during the conference in London, boosting regional integration of capital markets.
The event aims to highlight investment and business opportunities in the region and promote the inflow of foreign direct investment and cross-border projects. Participants will have the opportunity to engage directly with key political and business representatives.
The Summit follows the first Western Balkans Investment Forum at the EBRD in February 2014 which for the first time had brought together all prime ministers from the region.
The EBRD is one of the largest investors in the Western Balkans and last year alone the Bank invested around €1 billion in various projects from energy efficiency to infrastructure and from support for financial institutions to agribusiness
