The President of the National Bank of Georgia Roman Gotsiridze took part in the 3rd Special Meeting of the Board of Governors of the “Black Sea Trade and Development Bank“ (BSTDB). At the above-mentioned meeting Mr. Hayrettin Kaplan, representative of Turkey was appointed on the post of the President of the “Black Sea Trade and Development Bank“ (BSTDB) for a four year term.   Before appointment to this post Mr. Hayrettin Kaplan occupied the position of the President of one of the commercial banks of Turkey.   According to the procedures of the appointment of the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank authorities, the Board of Governors of the above-mentioned financial Institution selects one of the bank’s shareholder countries, the representative of which fulfils the functions of the President of the Bank for the contract period.   On July 31 of the current year, during the 2nd Special Meeting of BSTDB in a Greek town of Thessaloniki, the Board of Governors of the Bank assigned this responsibility to Turkey for the period of 2006-2010. The President of the National Bank of Georgia Roman Gotsiridze supported this decision. As the Turkish side was unable to submit its candidature, the issue was postponed for the next meeting of the Board of Governors of BSTDB.   By the invitation of the President of the National Bank of Austria, Roman Gotsiridze left Thessaloniki for Vienna, where the presidents of the central banks of two countries will discuss the prospects of mutual cooperation.     Turkey, Russia, and Greece are the principal shareholders within the structure of the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB), each possessing the 16,5% of shares, Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine – 13,5%, Albania and Azerbaijan – 2%, and Georgia, Armenia and Moldova - 1%. On 2004  Georgia’s share in the authorized capital decreased from 2% to 1% because of the solid indebtedness.   Black Sea Trade and Development Bank, the Head Office of which is located in a Greek town of Thessaloniki was established for the purposes of assisting BSEC (Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization) member states in overcoming their financial difficulties.   Agreement on establishing the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank was signed in Tbilisi at the Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of BSEC Member Countries on June 30, 1994 and it was ratified by the Parliament of Georgia on December 25, 1996.   Starting from June 1, 1999, following the organizational and legislative procedures, the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank began conducting its financial operations. BSTDB opened the credit lines in the amount of 18 mln. USD for Joint-Stock Companies: „Bank of Georgia“, „TBC Bank“, Bank „Republic“, „United Georgian Bank“ and „Procreditbank“. Besides, it carries out the projects of the Credit-Insurance Agency of Export Development and Poti Oil Terminal Reconstruction, the total volume of which is more than 8 mln USD.