PRESS RELEASE
The Governor of the Bank of Albania, Mr. Ardian Fullani, attended the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group

The Governor of the Bank of Albania, Mr. Ardian Fullani, attended the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group (WB), taking place from 19 to 21 April 2013, in Washington D.C., USA.

The annual Spring Meetings provide a forum for discussion of the latest global economic developments and exchange of opinions on policies and measures to tackle the problems.

In view of this, the Governor of the Bank of Albania, Mr. Ardian Fullani met with high-level officials, among others: Ms. Nemat Shafik, Deputy Managing Director of the IMF; Mr. Philippe Le Houerou, Vice President of the World Bank for Europe and Central Asia; Mr. Andrea Montanino, Executive Director for Albania in the IMF; Mr. Piero Cipollone, Executive Director for Albania in the World Bank; Mr. Reza Moghadam, Director of the IMF's European Department; Ms. Ellen Goldstein, Country Director and Regional Coordinator for Southeast Europe at the World Bank; and Mr. Charles Enoch, Deputy Director in the Monetary and Capital Markets Department, IMF. These meetings discussed the latest international developments, with special focus on the euro area economies and our main trading partners.

Governor Fullani presented an overview of Albania's economic situation, specifically of the banking sector and the macro prudential measures package undertaken recently by the Bank of Albania to boost lending to economy. The meetings concluded that Albania's economic and financial stability provides good grounds for Albania's economic development and it should be maintained and strengthened further. They also stressed that promoting economic growth remains the main challenge in the short and medium term.

Besides the regular meetings with above-mentioned personalities, Governor Fullani had also a number of other meetings. He had an important meeting with Mr. Jingdong Hua, Vice President of the Treasury at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), in which they discussed about further deepening of the financial market in Albania and the IFC's role in this regard. Soon the Bank of Albania, in cooperation with the IFC, will organise a joint forum to identify the main areas of common focus for deepening and expanding the financial market in Albania.

Also, Governor Fullani, following up the institutionalised contacts between the Bank of Albania and the Central Bank of the Republic of China, held a meeting with the Governor of the latter, Mr. Zhou Xiaochuan. Discussions centred on finding more effective ways for Albania's possible access to the market of Yuan-denominated financial instruments. This initiative is expected to be soon followed up by concrete steps between both institutions over the months ahead.

A special meeting took place between Governor Fullani and Mr. Andrew Spindler, President of the Financial Services Volunteers Corps (FSVC), which centred on further increase of technical assistance by this institution. The FSVC has gathered around well-known experts from academia and financial area of the United States of America. They have assisted and will continue to assist structural reforms in Albania's financial system, focussing specifically on the banking system reforms.

Governor Fullani met also with Mr. Phil Bennet, First Vice president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). This meeting discussed the joint development projects that the Albanian authorities have with the EBRD, and the possibilities of increasing the EBRD's presence and support to the Albanian financial system.

While staying in Washington, the meeting of the Vienna 2 Initiative Steering Committee was also held in the presence of all the members of the committee. Among others, Governor Fullani presented an overview of the results of the Albanian Financial Forum held in Tirana on April 2013. Also, as a member of the Vienna 2 Initiative Steering Committee, Governor Fullani informed the other members that he had contacted the heads of the central banks in the region to notify them on key issues discussed in this committee and to get their opinions and ideas about the role of the Vienna 2 Initiative for the future. The members of the committee discussed the latest initiative to create a European banking union and the Bank of Albania's request for ongoing information on the European initiatives and regulations for banking supervision.