September 14 (SeeNews) - The president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Suma Chakrabarti will visit Bucharest on September 17-18 as the Romanian capital is hosting the summit of the Three Seas Initiative.
In his meetings with the country’s authorities, Chakrabarti will reconfirm the EBRD’s availability to support much-needed infrastructure projects in Romania and will sign several financing agreements with local private sector companies, the EBRD said in a press release.
He will also announce a new partnership to support Romania's National Museum of Art.
"In order to support economic growth and help their income levels to converge with those of advanced economies, most countries in the EBRD region require either major investment with a view to expanding their infrastructure networks or investment in maintaining and upgrading existing infrastructure. The Three Seas Initiative is a ground-breaking effort to strengthen infrastructure networks in central Europe and I am looking forward to discussing feasible, well-designed projects which the EBRD could finance," EBRD president said.
The Three Seas Initiative is a European project, launched in 2016, to strengthen trade, infrastructure, energy and political cooperation among 12 countries bordering the Adriatic Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea.
Members of the initiative include Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic and Slovenia. All but Austria are countries where the EBRD invests or has invested in the past.
The summit will bring together heads of participating states, multilateral development banks and businesses. It aims to shortlist major strategic projects in the fields of energy, digital and transport infrastructure needed to support economic growth and the interconnectivity of member countries.
($= 0.8544 euro)