Minister of Finance Takis Klerides yesterday addressed the 11th Annual General Conference of the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) which took place in Bucharest, and of which Cyprus is a founding Member. Finance Ministers of 62 country-members took part, representatives from the European Union, the European Investment Bank and other international organisations.

The EBRD finances development programmes of 27 countries from Central and Eastern Europe as well as ex-Soviet Union countries, which aim to implement structural and sectoral reforms including decentralisation and privatisations. It also offers advisory services and technical support for maximizing the effectiveness of changes of the economies of the said countries from centrally directed to free market economies.