For quality investment across continents

The world was a very different place in 1991, the year the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development opened for business. And yet the mission our founding fathers defined for us back then has proved as timely and topical today as it was almost three decades ago.

We were set up to build open and sustainable market economies and to do so with a particular emphasis on fostering the private sector. We therefore judge our success not only by the volume of our investments - although it is substantial - but very much also by the quality of their impact. These are very important guiding principles for our work, work which nowadays extends over three continents - Europe, Asia and North Africa - and encompasses many of the countries and trade routes making up the Belt and Road Initiative.

This focus on quality investment was, rightly, a major theme of the recent European Union-China Summit Conclusions and the EU's communication on Connecting Europe and Asia. And I was most encouraged to see it feature prominently at the Central Asia Investment Forum which the EBRD hosted in Beijing, together with the People's Bank of China, on Nov 14.