At the World Bank’s conference in Washington, Montenegro’s experience in the implementation of MIDAS and IPARD-like projects, which have been implemented with the support of the World Bank in order to develop agriculture and strengthen the competitiveness of the Montenegrin producers, was recognised as a successful example of such practice and presented to the member states, where the World Bank is implementing similar projects.
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Petar Ivanović presented Montenegrin experience at the Third High-Level Meeting on Country-led Knowledge Sharing. Minister Ivanović spoke at a panel titled “Increasing agricultural productivity through the knowledge sharing”, where he presented realisation method of support projects to Montenegrin agriculture.
“The meeting in Washington was a good opportunity to exchange experiences of member states when it comes to agriculture and rural development. Participation in the conference gave us the opportunity to present the results of two projects we realise with the World Bank for almost six years, namely MIDAS and IPARD-like. We are called to transfer our experience to the countries in the region and the world where World Bank implements similar projects. The results achieved in agriculture are visible and large number of countries has expressed interest to hear experience of Montenegro,” said the Minister Ivanović.
Minister Ivanović also had separate talks with representatives of the International Finance Corporation and the management of World Bank.
“We talked about the continuation of cooperation. We provided EUR 52 million to support investments for the period 2016-2020. The money in the amount of 50 per cent of support should not be given to farmers in advance, but when they realise the investment. To complete projects to agricultural producers an additional EUR 100 million are needed for investment. That was the topic of conversation with representatives of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) – how directly through IFC or indirectly over the banking sector to provide money for investment in order not to think that because of lack of money funds from IPARD are withdrawn. We spoke with representatives of the World Bank on the continuation of the MIDAS project and agreed to move to the second phase of the project,” said Ivanovic, adding that, as things stand now, agriculture will occupy an important place in the five-year plan of activities of the World Bank in Montenegro.