Partnership between Montenegro and World Bank to be built upon private sector development in priority areas

Podgorica, Montenegro (26 June 2014) – Montenegro’s Finance Minister Radoje Žugić hosted earlier today representatives of the World Bank Group, headed by Executive Director Frank Heemskerk.

Minister Žugić informed Mr Heemskerk about the dynamics of the projects that are being implemented in tourism, energy, agriculture and infrastructure, and stressed their importance for creating new jobs and better standard of living in Montenegro.

World Bank’s Executive Director Heemskerk pledged the World Bank’s willingness to continue supporting Montenegro in implementing its development projects and new models of funding and providing assistance.

In that regard, the two officials discussed the possibility of intensifying cooperation through training programmes for employees of the Central Bank of Montenegro, enabling them to deal more effectively with current fiscal and economic issues.

Furthermore, innovative results based financing instruments for increasing efficiency of public spending and collection revenue will be continued, and one of the main priorities will be the reform of the Tax Administration, the meeting concluded.

New partnership between the World Bank Group and Montenegro will be built upon additional private sector development in the key areas as defined by the Government, namely tourism, energy, agriculture and processing industry, Executive Director of the World Bank told the press conference following his meeting with Finance Minister Žugić. In that regard, sustainability, infrastructure and ICT are the three main factors that should enable comprehensive growth in these sectors, he underlined.

“And a strong government is needed with targeted social expenditure and targeted investments making sure that Montenegro will grow even faster that it did in the past, boosting shared prosperity and working on ending poverty,” Mr Heemskerk stressed.

Finance Minister Žugić also announced the possibility of engaging Multilateral Investment Guarantee Investment Agency (MIGA) for offering guarantees for the Development Fund of Montenegro or the banking system in order to provide cheaper sources of finance, thus reducing vulnerability of the monetary system in terms of high interest rates and ensuring higher level of sustainability of the Montenegrin economy.