EBRD to continue investing EUR 1 billion a year in Western Balkans countries

Western Balkan states need to improve ‘hard connectivity’ such as transport links and strengthen their legal systems as they seek to attract more investment, the vice president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Pierre Heilbronn, said on Tuesday, September 5, 2017, Wisebroker reports.

He said for Reuters that the EBRD would continue investing around EUR 1 billion a year in the region which includes Serbia, B&H, Montenegro, Macedonia and Albania – the countries striving towards joining the European Union.

Heilbronn noted that the said countries needed to focus on how to “remove obstacles between these markets, which otherwise are quite small for even domestic investors”.

– Everything which is linked to hard connectivity, everything which is linked to the rule of law is very important – Heilbronn said on the sidelines of a regional political and economic forum in Slovenia’s Alpine resort of Bled. He added that the EBRD was focusing particularly on investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency which could produce large savings, Wisebroker reports.

EBRD Evropska banka za obnovu i razvoj Beograd

Pierre Heilbronn

EBRD investments in Western Balkans countries

regional political and economic forum Bled

renewable energy sources

RES

energy efficiency

investments in the Western Balkans