“It means a very great deal, institutionally and also for me personally”. That’s how Sir Suma Chakrabarti, President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, reflects on EBRD’s 25th Anniversary Annual Meeting, which opens today in London.
“The 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall was a crucial moment, the tearing down of the iron curtain – I remember it vividly,” Sir Suma tells bne-Intellinews. “The EBRD was then set up quickly, to help transition former Soviet-bloc countries away from communism and towards open-market economics – it’s been a fantastic story”.