The delegation consisted of the director Heinz Kaufmann, the director for Western Balkans Holger Muent and the head of the EBRD Resident Office in Podgorica Giulio Moreno.
Moreno pointed out that the Montenegrin agriculture was recognised by the EBRD as reliable in terms of investing in further development and will have a significant place in the new strategic framework for cooperation with Montenegro.
According to Muent, the new strategy will be based on strengthening the private sector, particularly in agriculture and tourism, as well as on connecting the two sectors to develop local economies.
“Projects of exploiting energy potentials of Montenegro and the development of transport infrastructure have also been recognised as competitive and as prerequisites for faster economic growth”, he said.
Ivanovic pointed to the positive trends in agriculture related to the growth of this sector in the production and export and its share in GDP.
“The results have been achieved thanks to the change of the development concept from agro social to agribusiness concept, as well as the intense process of educating farmers. Therefore, support to further increase the level of education and knowledge, particularly young people, is one of the most important segments of future cooperation”, he concluded.
The projects through which significant funds granted by the EU are available to Montenegrin producers after the investment implementation were presented to the EBRD representatives, as well as limitations due to poor banking support. The officials concluded that, after the priority areas for future cooperation were defined, EBRD and the government representatives would enter into a phase of more detailed consideration of specific projects.
