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Europe & Central Asia |
Portfolio | |
| Introduction
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The ECA portfolio has grown rapidly in recent years, doubling between fiscal 1992 and fiscal 1997,
with a total of 270 operations under supervision during fiscal
1997--almost half of which are in the new borrowing countries of the
CIS. This rapid increase in lending to countries with little or no previous experience
in borrowing from the Bank
resulted in unexpected delays in project execution, particularly in formalizing legal agreements,
completing procurement procedures, and processing disbursements. To
resolve these problems, Country Portfolio Performance Reviews
(CPPRs) were initiated with new borrowers, starting with
Russia in mid-fiscal 1996 and during fiscal 1997 with Armenia, Romania, and Russia, as well as a
multicountry review held in Istanbul in which all Central Asia countries
participated. These reviews have had considerable impact, yielding clear improvements in the portfolio. The Russian example, where visits by the Bank's top management have
played a pivotal role, is illustrative: the Russian portfolio is
now the largest in ECA, disbursements to Russia have tripled, and the percentage of unsatisfactory
projects has been reduced. EDI's Moscow team also helped assess the role of training in Russia's portfolio improvement and prepared
a training action plan for each project and for the overall portfolio.
These reviews have also highlighted the need for increased training in Bank procurement and disbursement processes--subsequently provided, in most cases, through resident missions--and the need to move more authority to field offices (four of the eleven ECA directors will be moved to the field during fiscal 1998). |
| Contents |
World Bank Group |
Publications |
IBRD |
IDA |
IFC |
MIGA |
ICSID |