The Central European Regional Conference on Development Finance and Private Sector Development was held – with the participation of the World Bank Group – in Budapest.
The conference, where attendees included representatives of Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia as well as Georgia as a special guest, fits well into those international processes that determine the global financial frameworks of development policies targeting sustainable development goals for 2015-2030. The new development framework is expected to engage trillions of dollars worldwide, with traditional public funds and a special focus on private sector resources. The main objective of the Government is to turn Hungary and the region into an active partner of this process through collaboration with multilateral development banks instead of remaining passive observers.
Minister for National Economy Mihály Varga received in his office World Bank Vice President for Concessional Finance and Global Partnerships Joachim von Amsberg. At the meeting, the Minister stressed that Hungary aims to bolster Central European cooperation through the partnership with international development banks. Regional cooperation and the support of various World Bank Group programmes may enable Hungary and regional peers to become more efficient partners in shaping international development policies that are pivotal from the aspect of strengthening export markets of competitive Hungarian and regional enterprises, but it might also help to start managing migration issues locally, Mihály Varga added.
Over the past years, Hungary has been striving to find a meaningful way of partnership with the Bank Group, recalibrate the more than 30-year-old relations and participate as an active donor in the development-focused financing of challenges in emerging markets and developing countries. These investment opportunities are important also in view of reinforcing the presence of Hungarian companies on export markets and they provide substantial business opportunities for our companies. In order to fortify this process, Hungary now operates its own advisory fund at the World Bank Group (IFC) which helps domestic enterprises join agricultural, healthcare or water management projects.
The fact that Eximbank has recently joined the Financial Institutions Growth Fund managed by the International Finance Corporation’s Asset Management Company, as an investor also helps reach development policy goals and contributes to Hungary’s economic success on a global scale.
The Central European Regional Conference on Development Finance and Private Sector Development was organized for the first time in Budapest with the participation of the Ministry for National Economy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Hungarian Export-Import Bank in partnership with the World Bank Group.
Through this initiative, Hungary aims to create a regional partnership platform that could provide an opportunity for Central European countries to review international development policy priorities each year within the framework of World Bank Group partnership and influence the direction of international development policy more efficiently.
(Ministry for National Economy)
