The FINANCIAL — The President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Sir Suma Chakrabarti, has led a delegation to Washington, D.C. for the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. He and other EBRD staff held meetings on how to continue delivering high levels of investment and policy reform assistance to the Bank’s countries of operations which range across three continents from Mongolia in Central Asia to Morocco on the Mediterranean.
President Chakrabarti and other EBRD staff held meetings with some of the Bank’s Governors representing shareholder countries, as well as with other officials. They were told that after last year’s record transition impact, with high levels of investment in projects, the Bank was delivering even more strongly, so far, this year. The President also highlighted challenges that our countries and the global economy were facing. He discussed with other regional development bank heads how their impact on the ground could be made stronger still by enhancing further their already good cooperation, according to EBRD.
That cooperation is more vital than ever as the global economy faces severe challenges. In a speech at the EBRD’s new business development office for North America, in Washington, the President said that now was not the time to cede ground to those who want to roll back globalisation. Instead, world economies should adapt their approach to globalisation to boost inclusion and fight inequality. The President argued that: “We need to do a better job of delivering growth and distributing its fruits more equitably. So, better globalisation, not less of it.”
During the visit to Washington, he also spoke at an event to launch the New Climate Economy 2016 Report. He explained that the EBRD was now putting even greater effort into investing in the green economy. By 2020, the Bank hoped that 40 per cent of its investments would come under its Green Economy Transition approach. This builds, he said, on the Bank’s sustainable financing activity which has already delivered many projects in the past decade.
Sustainable growth was also the focus when the President signed a framework for cooperation between the Bank and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).It aims to increase collaboration on common objectives in order to foster the development of the private sector and achieve sustainable and broad-based growth in the regions where they both operate. There was a signing, too, of a framework for collaboration with the Japan Bank for International Cooperation. It will enable closer working together across a range of areas with a focus on the infrastructure and energy sectors.
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