January 1, 2008. The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) joined INTERACT on 1 January 2008. INTERACT was established in 1973 and consists of the 16 EDFI members, the Agence française de Développement (AfD), Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) and the European Investment Bank (EIB). It is a forum for the exchange of views on development topics and has established a number of working groups which meet regularly and a CEO group which meets annually.

BSTDB invests in its 11 shareholder countries (Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine) of which 3 are EU members (Bulgaria, Greece and Romania). More than 95 percent of the bank’s activities are in the private sector. BSTDB has a staff of 100 and is headquartered in Thessaloniki, Greece.

For more information on BSTDB please go to: www.bstdb.org