PRESS RELEASE
The Annual Meeting of the Centre of Excellence in Finance (CEF) Governing Board hosted under the auspicious of Governor Sejko

On 22 June 2023, the Governing Board of the Centre of Excellence in Finance (CEF) convened the annual meeting at the premises of the Bank of Albania, to review achievements, discuss future plans, and promote learning for stronger public institutions. Governing Board is a decision making body of the CEF. Members of the Board comprise ministers of finance and governors of central banks from the CEF members.

This year, the annual meeting took place in Tirana under the auspicious of the Governor of the Bank of Albania, Mr Gent Sejko, who chaired the CEF Governing Board over 2022.

This meeting was attended by the Minister of Economy and Finance of Albania, Ms Delina Ibrahimaj, the Governor of the National Bank of Moldovia, Mr Octavian Armașu, the Governor of the Central Bank of Montenegro, Mr Radoje Zugic, the Deputy Governor of the Bank of Slovenia, the Deputy Governor of the National Bank of North Macedonia, the Deputy Minister of Finance of North Macedonia and other high-level representatives of the CEF’s member countries.

Governing Sejko in his welcome address thanked the CEF for the insofar collaboration and stated his confidence that Albania, particularly the Bank of Albania, will further expand the relations with the CEF at the same time benefit from the opportunities provided under this cooperation.

Mr Sejko stated that the CEF has been a strong and reliable partner for the Bank of Albania and this successful partnership will continue to build up policies that guarantee the macroeconomic and financial stability. Through its events, the CEF contributes in achieving the goals set forth in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, by promoting effective, responsible and comprehensive institutions across all levels. Governor Sejko highlighted that the strengthening of institutions aimed at empowering them dealing with various challenges and achieving their objectives remains very important.

“I would like to wish the Governor of the Central Bank of Moldova a successful presidency and to the CEF and all its members and partners many accomplishments in achieving our common goals in the upcoming year”. With these words, Governor Sejko passed the CEF key, symbolizing knowledge and success, along with the booklet that contains messages from past Governing Board chairs to their successors, to the newly appointed chair of the CEF Governing Board, the Governor of the National Bank of Moldavia, Mr Octavian Armașu.

During the meeting, the CEF Director Jana Repanšek highlighted the CEF’s progress toward the vision to inspire public officials, both individuals and teams, in shaping institutional governance that drives successful economies and fair societies.  She emphasized that the CEF's approach to capacity development focuses on both technical and non-technical skills, believing that this multifaceted approach is crucial for creating sustainable, inclusive, and effective policies and practices. 

“We scaled up our focus on team dynamics and organizational development.  We sharpened communication skills and improved as facilitators of progressive learning. This empowered us to offer high-quality learning experiences to our participants, and support them, their teams, and institutions in reaching their potential.  To this end, we also published our methodology on how public institutions can become learning organizations,” explained Ms Repanšek.

Ms Repanšek also thanked governing board members for their guidance and support in helping us shape CEF learning and knowledge sharing program into valuable learning experiences for public officials in South East Europe and beyond. “We remain committed to innovating and adapting our program to meet the learning needs of the region, and to unite public officials in our journey of regional knowledge sharing and professional development, as we are convinced of our common future in united Europe,” noted Ms  Repanšek.

During the meeting, the Governing Board reviewed and confirmed the CEF`s business and financial report for 2022. They also discussed the governance and program outline for 2024-2025.

In addition to the Governing Board meeting, members also participated in a high-level conference on Green Finance in South East Europe – Developing Capacities and Taxonomy organized by the CEF and the Bank of Albania. Together with high-level representatives working in the field of banking regulation and supervision in South East Europe, they discussed their institutions' efforts in promoting green finance according to their institutional mandate. Participants discussed the initial actions taken, the challenges faced, and their vision for the way forward. 

The overarching themes of the discussion revolved around raising awareness of climate change risks and opportunities, building partnerships and networks for learning and cooperation, developing strategies and roadmaps needed to prepare key stakeholders for more ambitious actions, and expected stricter environmental, social, and governance standards.

Related to green finance, Governor Sejko stated that the Bank of Albania, as a public institution, is devoted to understand and address the economic and financial consequences of climate change and the transition to a net-zero emissions economy. We are working on the adoption of our policies to these changes. “Sharing of knowledge, practices, discussions, staff training and public education, like today, are crucial in this process and the Bank of Albania will continue dedicate sufficient sources to the study and modelling of climate effects in the price and financial stability”, - added Governor Sejko.

The goal of the conference was to contribute to making Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050.

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About the CEF Governing Board (www.cef-see.org/governance)

Governing Board is a decision-making body of the CEF. It confirms the CEF annual report and financial statements, reviews the progress and other relevant issues.  Members of the Board comprise ministers of finance and governors of central banks from the CEF members (Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, and Slovenia).  Members of the Board are also 3 representatives of the Advisory Board.

About the CEF (www.cef-see.org)

The CEF is an international organization with the mission to support capacity development of public officials and their institutions in South East Europe through learning and knowledge sharing.  We are a leader in applying people-centred learning approaches and holding the know-how of becoming and being a learning organization.  As a key learning partner for public officials in the CEF constituency in South East Europe, we have specified four thematic priorities for our work: public financial management, central banking, leadership for managing reforms and learning and knowledge ecosystems.

 

• Photo Gallery 

• Governor Sejko: Welcome Address to the High – level Conference on “Green Finance in South East Europe: Developing capacities and a Taxonomy”