Private Sector Development in Focus

Private Sector Development in Focus

21-06-2017

14 - 15 June 2017, Stockholm: More than 75 participants from the European Commission - DG NEAR, WBIF financing institutions, bilateral donors, and Western Balkans beneficiaries attended the proceedings of the sixteenth Steering Committee meeting in Stockholm, on the premises of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.

Apart from approving additional funding for investments and technical assistance support as well as welcoming the KfW as a partner organisation, the WBIF Steering Committee focused on private sector-related initiatives and current challenges facing the region, with the overall purpose to best capitalise on synergies and strategically interconnect private sector interventions with the infrastructure projects funded under the WBIF.

Discussions thus engaged with the current economic outlook of the Western Balkans and the ease of doing business in the Western Balkans, as well as with strategic programmes targeting private sector development, such as the EU’s Western Balkans Enterprise Development and Innovation Facility, EIB’s Economic Resilience Initiative for the Southern Neighbourhood and Western Balkans, EBRD’s Women in Business, KfW’s Vocational Education and Training fund to support employability in SMEs, and JRC’s Smart Growth and Innovation initiative to help with the commercialisation of research.

More details, including the agenda of the event, may be found in Library.

Caption: Participants to the WBIF Steering Committee in Stockholm, 15 June 2017. (c) Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the European Commission