EBRD Board of Governors: Montenegro achieves progress in public finance consolidation

Warsaw, Poland (15 May 2014) – Montenegro’s delegation, led by Finance Minister Radoje Žugić, participates in the Annual Meeting of the EBRD Board of Governors, which takes place in Warsaw. The cooperation between the Government of Montenegro and the EBRD has been successful, particularly in terms of energy and infrastructure projects implementation, the meeting concluded.

The EBRD representatives commended Montenegro’s progress made in the area of consolidation of public finances and voiced willingness to support its activities aimed at further improving the overall financial system. In that context, the meeting focused on supporting activities aimed at addressing the high level of non-performing loans in the total loan portfolio, as well as the EBRD’s readiness to support activities related to drafting the new Law on Factoring.

It was also agreed that future cooperation will be concentrated on the challenges of the economic environment in order to stimulate economic growth and regional cooperation, and to reduce regional development disparities. The Board of Governors agreed these objectives can be achieved through investing in public and private sectors and supporting local communities by using existing and innovative instruments.

On the sidelines of the EBRD’s meeting in Warsaw, Montenegro’s Finance Minister Žugić met with Romualdo Massa Bernucci of the European Investment Bank (EIB). It was agreed that the cooperation between this institution and the Government of Montenegro will be further enhanced through designing and implementing an innovative model of youth employment support through the Montenegrin Investment and Development Fund, characterised by favourable loan conditions. Providing support for small and medium-sized enterprises will result in increasing competitiveness of the national economy, the officials concluded.

At a meeting with representatives of the Moody's, FM Žugić presented the Finance Ministry’s activities in 2013 which resulted in positive trends in the macroeconomic and fiscal indicators and contribute to increasing investors’ confidence in the recovery of the Montenegrin economy and, consequently, to the reduction of the cost of financing public debt.