The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) hosted the government heads of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia at its Western Balkans Investment Summit 2022 , writes ebrd.com
The event was held in a hybrid online and physical format. The interactive discussion between the heads of governments and EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso will be live-streamed. Investors will be able to join the interactive “Prime Ministers’ Session” online.
This is the fifth EBRD summit of its kind; the inaugural Western Balkans Summit, which brought together all the region’s prime ministers for the first time, took place at the EBRD in February 2014. The aim of the summit is to highlight investment and business opportunities and to promote regional connectivity.
The Western Balkans is a priority region for the EBRD, the largest institutional investor in the region, with more than €15 billion invested to date.
Having invested €1.046 billion in 2021, the EBRD has already identified investment opportunities of the same amount for 2022 and expects to increase the pipeline further. This comprises, among other things, projects supporting the green energy transition, regional connectivity and environmental infrastructure, as well as financing for the private sector, both directly and through credit lines and risk sharing with local commercial banks.
The EBRD is actively engaged in areas of policy and regulatory reform, helping countries to develop and implement ambitious decarbonisation strategies, strengthen the business climate and governance of state-owned enterprises, create more inclusive economies, and accelerate the digital transition of the region. In the most recent example, the Bank helped the stock exchange of North Macedonia develop guidelines for environmental, social and governance reporting of listed companies.
The Bank also backs regional and cross-border projects. One example of innovative financing is the recent investment in an equity fund that will provide equity financing to early-stage technology companies in the Western Balkans, Croatia and Slovenia.
Construction started on the electricity interconnector between North Macedonia and Albania, supported also by the EU grant under the Western Balkans Investment Framework.
