Finance & Enterprise Development Project

closed

The Financial and Enterprise Development Project will help finance information and communication technology, training, and technical assistance. In the enterprise sector, the project will: 1) continue the Bank's assistance for the implementation of the Government's privatization program; 2) provide advisory services for the defensive restructuring and privatization of distressed large enterprises, or for their liquidation; and 3) transfer modern market economic know-how to enterprise managers through a program of highly structured study tours. In the financial sector, the project will support: 1) advice for the start-up and operation of a debt resolution institution to force the restructuring and resolve the debts of up to forty insolvent enterprises that burden the banks, state budget, and other creditors most severely; 2) institutional development programs for two promising medium-size banks and restructuring programs for two large, formerly specialized banks, consisting of intensive three-year assistance by foreign banks and of equipment and software for bank automation; 3) strengthening of prudential bank supervision through on-the-job training of bank examiners, with increasing specialization on problem banks; and 4) the long-term investments for a new domestic payment system aimed at, inter alia, same-day finality of settlements and real time processing of high value transactions.