South-East European Research Centre (SEERC)

The workshop was organised by SEERC in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance of Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The aims of the workshop were:

• To examine the evolution, current characteristics and prospects of the banking system assessing its ability to cope with identified pressures.
• Derive a set of priority issues regarding confidence building, quality of financial intermediation and ability to cope with financial volatility and EU accession challenges.

The workshop covered financial sector reform issues in Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, FYROM, Romania, and Serbia and Montenegro.

The workshop addressed related issues regarding:

• The process of European integration for the financial sector in SEE economies.
• Overview of theoretical issues relating to financial reform in developing economies.
• The international experience from macroeconomic stabilisation and financial reform.
• The experience of Central Eastern European economies with financial reform.

A further aim of the workshop was to collect the material submitted for the purpose of preparing a book on Financial Reform in South East Europe that would address the needs of policy makers and bankers as well as used for teaching purposes at graduate level. Finally, the organised exposition of the issues raised by the workshop attempted to provide key material for a planned project that would be proposed to relevant government and international bodies for financing.

A book was published as the outcome of the workshop: Financial Sector Reform in South East Europe, Georgios Anastasiadis (ed.)