Georgia is Hosting the IMF/WB Constituency Meeting

Today, IMF/WB Constituency Meeting was opened by the prime-minister of Georgia Mr. Bidzina Ivanishvili in The Tbilisi Marriot Hotel. The welcoming speeches were given by the Governor of the National Bank of Georgia and IMF Governor for Georgia, Mr. Giorgi Kadagidze and the Minister of the Finance of Georgia and World Bank Governor for Georgia, Mr. Nodar Khaduri. The opening of the annual meeting was attended by the members of Georgian government, and the representatives of the IMF and the World Bank in Georgia.

The governor of the National Bank of Georgia, Mr. Giorgi Kadagidze spoke about the importance of the meeting and said that “this is the high rank meeting, which is particularly important, since we have the opportunity to held the bilateral meetings with the high rank officials from the developed European countries, which already passed that stage of economic development, at which Georgia is today. Sharing their experience with us, analyzing and evaluating the successes and the failures is extremely essential and important, allowing us to take into account others’ history and to direct the future development of the country to the right path”. 

The Constituency Meeting was chaired by the Minister of Finance of Belgium, Mr. Koen Geens. The meeting was opened by the Executive Director of IMF, Mr. Menno Snel, and by the Executive Director of The World Bank, Frank Heemskerk. During three working sessions the delegates have discussed different issues of development, monetary and fiscal policy. This meeting also allowed the member countries to share the experience. 

The fact that Georgia is hosting the constituency meeting this year is particularly important, since it gives the opportunity to the policymakers of the member countries to get acquainted with the Georgian economy, its business environment, economic achievements and the challenges of the country in situ.  This meeting will in future help the domestic companies in establishing business relations with the member countries and attracting the investment. 

In parallel with the sessions bilateral and multilateral meetings between the member country delegations were held. After the official opening of the meeting statements were made for Georgian and foreign media.

The National Bank of Georgia and the Ministry of Finance of Georgia were hosting the IMF/WB Constituency Meeting from May 31 to June 2, 2013. The participants were the governors of the central banks, the ministers of the finance and the economy of the 15 constituency member countries (Bulgaria, Israel, Romania, Ukraine, Belgium, Luxembourg, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, and the Netherlands) and high rank officials of the World Bank and IMF.