Montenegrin Delegation Meets World Bank’s Senior Officials
19/04/2024
The delegation of Montenegro, led by the CBCG Governor, Ms Irena Radović, and the Minister of Finance, Mr Novica Vuković, is participating in the 2024 IMF / World Bank 2024 Spring Meetings in Washington.
During the Spring Meetings, the Montenegrin delegation met with the World Bank’s Senior Officials: Ms Antonella Bassani, Vice President for the Europe and Central Asia region, Mr Eugene Rhuggenaath, the Executive Director, and Mr Christopher Sheldon, Country Manager for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Minister Vuković said that the Government’s priority is improving economic policies aimed at improving the living standards of Montenegrin citizens along with dynamic infrastructure development and implementing a wide range of reform measures and laws. In this context, Minister Vuković expressed satisfaction with the future signing of the Country Partnership Framework between Montenegro and the World Bank, which defines Montenegro’s most important development projects.
“The banking sector is the most stable and resilient part of the Montenegrin economy, characterised by positive trends in all key indicators,” said Governor Radović, emphasising banks’ good capitalisation and reduced non-performing loans.
Governor Radović thanked the World Bank for the continuous support provided to the CBCG, and especially for the implementation of the project “Western Balkans Payment Modernisation”, which aims to support Montenegro and other countries in the region in their efforts to become part of the Single Euro Payment Area (SEPA). “With your support, the CBCG is working intensively in two areas - aligning the regulatory framework with EU directives and modernising payment systems to meet the requirements for joining SEPA as soon as possible,” said Governor Radović.
Vice President Bassani expressed the World Bank’s readiness to continue supporting Montenegro in this process. The World Bank and CBCG representatives agreed that their future cooperation should also focus on projects of financial sector greening and climate change management.
The Minister of Finance and his team also met in Washington with Mr Akihiko Nishio, World Bank Vice President for Development Finance and theInternational Development Association (IDA), who expressed satisfaction with Montenegro’s membership and donor status in the most prominent global fund that works to reduce poverty through providing low-interest loans and grants for programmes that stimulate economic growth, reduce inequalities and improve people’s living conditions. Namely, Montenegro paid the first of 3 instalments of the donation to this international association for 330 thousand USD. At the meeting, they also agreed that our country would appoint a permanent representative in IDA, which will significantly strengthen the partnership.
The Montenegrin delegation also attended the meeting of the Belgian-Dutch constituency, chaired by the Minister of Finance of the Netherlands, Mr Steven van Weyenberg. This meeting conveyed that the global economy is facing inflation, high debt levels, inequality, geopolitical tensions and climate change challenges. Additional efforts in the form of more decisive implementation of structural reforms and increased investment in (digital) infrastructure and research and development are needed to overcome these challenges and improve the prospects for long-term growth and productivity, concluded the Constituency meeting.