New Start: IBEC Council Approves 'Bratislava Concept' of the Bank's Further Development

27 June 2018

On 26-27 June the city of Bratislava, the Slovak Republic, hosted the 131st Council Meeting of the International Bank for Economic Co-operation (IBEC) as chaired by the Slovak Republic’s delegation. The Council is the highest management body of the Bank and it includes high-level officials from eight member states.

Following a ten-year break in a historic tradition the Council Meeting was attended by a delegation of the International Investment Bank (IIB) chaired by Mr. N. Kosov, Chairman of the Board. The IBEC Council Meeting also welcomed a guest – a representative of the Republic of Hungary – the IIB’s member state.

At the start of the meeting the IBEC Heads of member states’ delegations welcomed again the nomination of Ivanov, Denis Yurievich, to the position of IBEC’s Chairman of the Board and they expressed hope that the new manager’s steering would promote the Bank’s considerable renovation and it would become a modern and demanded international development institution implementing its mission of developing the IBEC member states’ economies.

As D. Ivanov pointed out in his welcome address to the IBEC’s Council: ‘This Council Meeting is planned to be a landmark event in establishing IBEC’s path going forward. Our agenda for this meeting is quite intense, though it may be quite briefly reformulated without any loss of meaning in one phrase only: strategic shift of IBEC’s long term stagnation trend to upturn, i.e. the IBEC is getting a new start’.

This IBEC’s Council Meeting has indeed become a special one for many reasons. First of all, in Bratislava the Council approved the Further Development Concept which envisages IBEC’s full-scale reform and achievement of a qualitatively and volume-wise new level in the Bank’s profile activities. The Council-approved prominent changes in the Bank’s business processes are also aimed at an active development of IBEC’s business.

The other key point of the Meeting has been a discussion by the member states of the possibility of establishing a banking Group on the basis of two banks, as presented by Chairmen of IBEC and IIB Boards. The issue has instigated an animated discussion between the countries which pointed out the relevant character of the proposed changes which is indispensable and unavoidable in view of multiple challenges in the modern financial world. The Council has resolved to convene a ‘summit of 10 countries’ with participation of representatives from both Banks’ Councils in order to discuss practical aspects of the Group establishment.

Summarizing the Meeting results, the IBEC member states’ representatives concurred on the opinion that only a decisive reform of the Bank may ensure IBEC’s ‘combat readiness’ for execution of operations at a modern level and in the tough competitive environment. Multifaceted and detailed discussions also continued during the IBEC Council Meeting networking breaks.

The Council Meeting and the adopted resolutions have demonstrated IBEC member states’ engagement in the Bank’s ‘re-loading’ as well as their readiness to give IBEC a chance to restructure its activities and to take its worthy place in the modern international financial system.