By Emmanuel Oluebube, Senior Correspondent UK
The Western Balkans Investment Summit 2022 will be held at the EBRD HQ in London on Monday February 28. The event will be attended by all six heads of government from the region, who have confirmed their participation.
The aim of the Summit is to highlight potential investment and business opportunities in the Western Balkans region and to promote regional and cross-border projects. This is the fifth EBRD summit of its kind; the inaugural Western Balkans Summit took place at the EBRD in February 2014 and, for the first time, brought together all the region’s prime ministers.
The Western Balkans is a priority region for the EBRD. Today, the EBRD remains one of the largest institutional investors in countries of the region, with €15 billion(US$16.97billion) invested to date.
The traditional highlight of the Summit – interactive “Prime Ministers Session” – will see the six leaders and the President of the EBRD address the audience with their overall vision for the region, key regional projects and opportunities for investment at both regional level and in each of the coutnries of the region, which includes Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. The session will feature extended Q&A with foreign investors.
Due to the global pandemic, this year’s Summit will be organised under special provisions in hybrid format. Besides strict social distancing and other necessary safety measures in place in the EBRD HQ, the event organisers will have to limit the physical presence to the prime ministers and their Delegations, while the investors will join online and will be able to ask their questions directly to the prime ministers.
Participation in the event is by invitation only. Interested investors may contact Beverley Eckhart, at events@ebrd.com and, once registered, will be provided with the link to join the interactive session.
The whole event will be live streamed. The live stream details will be published on 21 February 2022.
