Babacan sees role for EBRD in Middle East, North Africa

Turkey's deputy prime minister for economy said Friday changing political landscape in the Middle East and North Africa has created new potential partners for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. "The developments in the Middle East and North Africa in the past couple of years has revealed the presence of new regions and countries where EBRD can make contributions," Ali Babacan told an opening session of EBRD's annual meeting in Istanbul. Babacan stated that EBRD has provided significant contributions to the promotion of entrepreneurship and transition to a market economy in many countries around the world. " EBRD has become a key actor in the development of countries with a total of 80 billion euros financial support it had extended so far.EBRD has played an important role in the transition process in Central Europe and Baltic countries," Babacan said.