World Bank Appoints Anna Akhalkatsi as New Country Manager for Romania and Hungary
BUCHAREST:Ms. Anna Akhalkatsi is the new World Bank Country Manager for Romania and Hungary, effective yesterday.
Based in Bucharest, Ms. Akhalkatsi will oversee the World Bank’s program in Romania and Hungary and lead policy dialogue with government counterparts, private sector, civil society and other relevant constituencies in the two countries.
“I look forward to working closely with all counterparts and partners in Romania and Hungary. Our complex program in Romania is using a wide range of instruments to support the government in successfully achieving its development priorities, including in key areas such as health care, education and building resilience to natural disasters” said Ms. Akhalkatsi. “A key priority for our engagement in Romania will be the sustainable and inclusive post-COVID-19 recovery in line with government’s objectives and our 2018-2023 Country Partnership Framework.”
A Georgian national, Ms. Akhalkatsi first joined the World Bank in 1999 as an economist in Tbilisi, Georgia. She then became the country representative for the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in Georgia before moving to Washington D.C., where she worked on strategy, small business finance and firm capability, value chains and agribusiness issues. Subsequently, Ms. Akhalkatsi acted as Regional Lead for IFC’s Cross-Cutting Advisory Solutions in the region of Latin America and Carribean. Prior to taking up her new post in Romania she was the World Bank Country Manager for Moldova.
Ms. Akhalkatsi succeeds Ms. Tatiana Proskuryakova.
The World Bank has been present in Romania since 1991. Since then, it has provided investment loans, guarantees and grants in all sectors of the Romanian economy. In addition to investment operations, a broad program of Advisory Services and Analytics, mainly through Reimbursable Advisory Services, supports the Government’s development priorities and enhances the capacity of key institutions to improve the efficiency of public administration. The active portfolio includes ten investment operations and 53 advisory services tasks.