On 20-21 January, Euromoney held its 2009 Central & Eastern European Forum in Vienna. Traditionally, this conference is the main arena for discussing investment projects in the CEE region, and the first opportunity of the year to do so.

In Vienna this year Center-invest Bank presented its programme 'Southern Russia Versus the Global Crisis' to its foreign partners. The forum participants were very interested in the principles for building the post-crisis economy in southern Russia (http://centrinvest.ru/ru/pub.html).

Center-invest Bank's foreign partners confirmed their willingness to continue co-operation with the bank and to help finance projects in southern Russia that are designed to develop the SME sector, energy efficiency technologies, and agribusiness.

Responding to the interest in southern Russia shown by European investors, financiers and analysts, during the course of the conference, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Center-invest Bank, Professor Vasily Vysokov (Doctor of Economics), gave a series of interviews to the major Austrian publications Die Presse, Der Standard and WirtschaftBlatt (http://www.wirtschaftsblatt.at/home/zeitung/aktuell/358982/index.do).