EU-funded Twinning project with National Bank of Belarus concludes in Minsk

11.07.2019

A final conference for the EU-funded Twinning project, “Strengthening the National Bank of Belarus,” took place in Minsk on 10 July.

With a budget of 1.15 million euros, the project was carried out by a consortium of Germany's Deutsche Bundesbank, Narodowy Bank Polski and the Bank of Lithuania between January 2018 and June 2019. Representatives of the central banks of Austria, Romania, Slovakia, Finland, Estonia, and France shared their expertise with Belarusian colleagues.

Speaking at the conference, Andrea Wiktorin, head of the EU Delegation to Belarus, expressed satisfaction with the project, the first one of its kind in Belarus. "Experts from EU member states worked together with their Belarusian colleagues for more than a year to increase their professional skills, bring the best practices of the EU countries and adapt them to the local conditions and needs," she said. "I hope that in the nearest future the Belarusian people will see the positive results of the project in their everyday life – lower inflation, more stable Belarusian rubel, stronger banking supervision, more reliable payment system, etc."

Ambassador Wiktorin noted that other Belarusian governmental agencies had expressed an interest to carry out Twinning projects, namely, the National Cadastre Agency, the emergency management ministry, the State Border Committee, the State Customs Committee, and the National Statistical Committee.

The Belarusian project leader, Sergei Kalechits, deputy chairman of the board of the National Bank of Belarus, played up the project's contribution to financial stability, banking supervision, the protection of financial services consumers’ rights, the development of payment systems and information technologies, financial risk management and communication policy.

A bill governing payment systems and services has been drawn up with consideration for European practices in the framework of the project.