PRESS RELEASE
Governor Sejko participates in the Annual Meeting and Advisory Group of the European Fund for Southeast Europe

On 18-19 November 2015, Gent Sejko, the Governor of the Bank of Albania, participated in Annual Meeting and Advisory Group of the European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE) in Berlin, Germany.

In this year's Annual Meeting, the EFSE celebrated a decade of development finance under the motto 'Balancing the future - transform, transfer, technologize'. Participants included central bank governors, representatives from EFSE, KfW, German Ministry of Finance, as well as senior delegates from banking and microfinance institutions, international financial institutions and business and media representatives.

The EFSE Advisory Group comprises central bank governors, representatives of the KfW and other high-level representatives of related institutions and discussed on the future activity of the EFSE. Governor Sejko spoke on the important role of small and medium-sized enterprises in the economy stating that revitalising this sector assumes high importance, as the financial support for it is affected by the prolonged global crisis.

Governor Sejko added that it is necessary to boost the absorbing power of EFSE funds by increasing the number of partner lending institutions in Albania. In this aspect, he assured the participants that the Bank of Albania will take all the measures for urging financial institutions (to become partner lending institutions) licenced by it to be more active in the process and increase their cooperation with the EFSE.

About the European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE)