PRESS RELASE
Governor of the Bank of Albania, Ardian Fullani, Attends Annual Meeting of the European Fund for Southeast Europe

On 5-7 June 2013, Governor of the Bank of Albania, Ardian Fullani, attended the annual meeting of the European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE), which was held in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. This annual meeting was attended by central bank governors, representatives from international institutions, academics, private investors etc.
During the first day, Governor Fullani attended the Annual EFSE Advisory Group Meeting. The discussions addressed the developments in Southeast European countries, mainly banking system-related, and EFSE's important role in boosting regional development and cooperation.

On 6 June 2013, the Governor attended the Conference entitled 'Strong partners-strong impact'. The attendees highlighted the importance of correlation between strong financial institutions and their impact at client level.

In his address at the Governors' panel, Governor Fullani pointed out the need of having well-capitalised and liquid financial institutions, as a pre-condition for weathering the international crisis effects and preserving their contribution to financial intermediation. The Governor also launched the Bank of Albania's legal, prudential and monetary actions that aim at addressing the deteriorating banking sector's asset quality due to the decelerating economic growth. Governor Fullani re-emphasised the need for fast structural reforms in the economy, particularly in terms of financial market development, design of supportive public policies for sectors with greater potential for development, and further improvement of the business climate. At present, the primary objective should be to recover economic growth, maintaining at the same time stable macroeconomic and financial indicators.

Established on 15 December 2005, the European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE) aims to foster economic development and prosperity in Southeast Europe and the European Eastern Neighbourhood Region (ENR), including Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Macedonia, Georgia, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.