YEREVAN, December 18. /ARKA/. The Board of Directors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has chosen the Armenian capital Yerevan as the venue of its an annual meeting in 2021, Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan said today.

He said in a Facebook post that the EBRD Board of Governors is expected to vote on this issue in late January next year.

The Deputy Prime Minister recalled that the idea to choose Yerevan as the venue of the EBRD's annual meeting and a business forum in 2021 was first announced this past spring and was repeatedly confirmed during high-level meetings with representatives of the bank in various venues.

He said an EBRD delegation visited Yerevan in November to evaluate Armenia’s capabilities to host the gathering.

He said the gathering would be also an excellent opportunity for the business community to establish new relationships, since the annual meeting of the bank brings together more than 2000 participants, including top executives, senior government officials, representatives of civil society and the world media.

The EBRD is a leading institutional investor in Armenia, having invested since 1992 some 1.4 billion euros in 180 financial, corporate, infrastructure and energy projects with 86% of the investment channeled into the private sector. -0-