The function of the Board of Governors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is to take the major decisions affecting the structure and operations of the bank. For instance, the Board of Governors has recently decided on a capital increase, and in general it sets the overall direction of bank policy at the highest level.
The day to day running of the bank, approval of projects and formulation of the bank's policies in particular areas is a function of the Board of Directors.
The one task which will definitely fall to the Chairman of the Governors is the chairing of the bank's next Annual Meeting in London in April of next year and I look forward to this.
As I have just taken up the appointment it would be premature to identify any specific proposal which I would initiate in the course of the year. I intend, in my capacity as chairman, to emphasise the compelling need to advance the economic development of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, which are the EBRD's area of operation. I will make it my business to support the Bank's current policy of assessing programmes and projects by reference to the contribution they can make to the process of transition from command economy to market economy, while observing scrupulously the requirements of sound banking practice.