Annual Meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Held

Sarajevo, 12 October 2018

From October 12 until October 14, 2018, Governor of the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Senad Softić, Ph.D., is attending the Annual Meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (EB), which is taking place this year in Nusa Dua, Indonesia. As an Acting Governor in the World Bank during this year’s Annual Meeting, by authorization of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denis Zvizdić, Ph.D., Governor Softić is attending series of meetings with officials from the IMF, WB, as well as, from other international financial institutions.

One of meetings which should be specifically mentioned was the Plenary Session of the Annual Meeting of the IMF and WB, which was focused on the need to improve cooperation at the global level and on need to set up the new form of multilateralism with the goal to take on the global problems more efficiently, such as poverty, global warming and other problems which none of countries can efficiently deal with individually. Key message was that the time has come to stop rivalry and competition and, instead, to shift focus on investment in human resources, education, acquiring of skills and strengthening of the health and social protection system.

In addition to the plenary session, Governor Softić also attends the regular meeting of the Dutch-Belgian Constituency of the IMF and the WB to which Bosnia and Herzegovina belongs, on which the topics discussed at the plenary session were discussed with a focus on regional specifics. These meetings are also an opportunity to discuss topics on which the Constituency should have a stance at the meetings of the IMF and the WB.

During his stay in Indonesia, Governor Softić will hold a meeting with the Director of the IMF Department for Europe, Paul Thomsen, the WB Vice-President for the ECA region, Cyril Muller, IMF Executive Director Anthony de Lannoy and the Executive Director of the WB Franck Heemskerk. These meetings will be used for discussions about economic trends, monetary policy, banking and financial sector, and on the current state of affairs related to the program of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the IMF.

At the invitation of the Governor of the Bank of Indonesia, Governor Softić, Ph.D., will attend a high-level Conference organized in order to stimulate a debate on the topic of support to investment activities related to the maintenance of economic development, as well as, a regular presentation of the state of the regional economy, during which high officials of central banks and international financial institutions will discuss economic indicators.