Meeting of the outgoing Board of Directors

Meeting of the ordinary General Assembly
Interpretation: DE, EN, ES, FR, IT

Constitutive meeting of the Board of Directors

Opening

• Chairman of AECM 

Key note addresses:
How to achieve a speedy and full recovery

• Kerstin Jorna, Director General, Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW), European Commission 
• Alain Godard, Chief Executive, European Investment Fund
• Véronique Willems, Secretary-General, SMEunited

Financing the digitalisation of SMEs

Moderator and introductory speaker:
DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION Lucia Cusmano, Deputy Head of the SME and Entrepreneurship Division, Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities, OECD

• Jan Ceyssens, Head of Unit, Digital Finance, Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union (DG FISMA), European Commission
• DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION Zenón Vázquez Irizar, Chairman of the AECM working group digitalization
• DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION Suzanne Sweeney, Head of Lending, Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI), Ireland
• DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION Matthew Bezzina, CEO of eCabs, Malta

Concluding remarks

• Chairman of AECM 

Welcome to the international summit

• Chairman of AECM 
• José Fernando Figueiredo, Special Honorary Chairman of the European Association of Guarantee Institutions (AECM) with the special mandate for international relations, and Coordinator of the Global Network of Guarantee Institutions (GNGI)

Keynote address:
How to make SMEs around the world fit for future

• Matthew Gamser, CEO, The SME Finance Forum

From continent to continent:
Recent trends in the guarantee industry

Moderator and introductory speaker:
Ghada O’Teima, Global – Principal Operations Officer, Financial Institutions Group, International Finance Corporation (IFC)

• Asia
  Sang-il Kim, Deputy Director, International Affairs Team, KODIT, Korea

• Ibero-America / Latin-America
  Beatriz Freitas, President of The Ibero-American network of guarantees association (REGAR) and Chairwoman of the Board of Directors, Banco Português de Fomento (BPF), Portugal

• The MENA region
  Nagla Bahr, President of the Euro-Mediterranean Guarantee Network (EMGN) and Managing Director, Credit Guarantee Company (CGC), Egypt 

• Europe
  Katrin Sturm, Secretary General, European Association of Guarantee Institutions (AECM)

Concluding remarks

• Mohammed Al-Jafari, Director General, Jordan Loan Guarantee Corporation (JLGC) and  Coordinator of the Global Network of Guarantee Institutions (GNGI)

• Approval and presentation of new members of the GNGI
• Activity plan 2021 – 2022 / Topics for webinars
• Next meeting
• Any other business

Concluding remarks

• José Fernando Figueiredo, GNGI Coordinator

Opening statement

• Chairman of AECM 

Keynote addresses:
Factors required for economic recovery

• Edouard Fernandez-Bollo, Member of the Supervisory Board, European Central Bank (ECB) “ECB supervisory priorities”
• DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION Peter Simon, Managing Director European Savings and Retail Banking Group as well as Managing Director World Savings and Retail Banking Institute
• Lina Konstantinopoulou, Policy Director, Eurochambres – the Association of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry

Panel 1

Fostering sustainable investments

Moderator and introductory speaker:
Giuseppe E. Gramigna, Advisor to AECM, Consultant to the World Bank Group and former US SBA Chief Economist, USA
Technical Screening Criteria and Taxonomies for Environmentally Sustainable Activities and their Financing – The MSME Dimension

• DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION Pietro Calice, Senior Financial Economist, Europe and Central Asia, The World Bank
• DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION Sumeet Manchanda, Associate Director, Lead EU & Bilateral Green Finance, Energy Efficiency and Climate Change, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
• Christian Fahrholz, Head of Unit Corporate Finance and Financial Markets, Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) and member of the Board of Directors of the Association of German Guarantee Banks (VDB), Germany

Panel 2

Fostering SMEs’ resilience: The role of equity and mezzanine finance

Moderator and introductory speaker:
DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION Christian Dubarry, Head of European and International Relations, Bpifrance, France

• Gerhard Huemer, Director Economic Policy, SMEunited
• DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION Guy Selbherr, Managing Director of the SME-oriented investment company of Baden-Württemberg (“Mittelständische Beteiligungsgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg GmbH”/ MBG Baden-Württemberg) as well as Managing Director of the Guarantee Bank of Baden-Württemberg (“Bürgschaftsbank Baden-Württemberg”), Germany
• DOWNLAOD PRESENTATION Doris Agneter, Managing Director of a promotional institution providing guarantees and participations to SMEs based in Lower Austria (“NÖ Bürgschaften und Beteiligungen GmbH“ – NÖBEG), Austria

Panel 3

Financial instruments: EU support for a successful recovery

Moderator and introductory speaker:
Giorgio Chiarion Casoni, Director, InvestEU and financial institutions, Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission

• Astrid Bartels, Head of Unit, Access to Finance, Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW), European Commission
• Stéphane Ouaki, Head of Department E, European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA), European Commission
• Michael Pielke, Head of Unit, Bulgaria, Croatia, Poland, Slovenia; Financial instruments, Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI), European Commission
• Jonathan Denness, Head of Unit, Financial Instruments and International Financial Institutions Relations, Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO), European Commission
• Andrea Bomhoff, Head of Unit, State aid — Financial institutions III, Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP), European Commission
• Christa Karis, EIG – Head of Strategy and Business Support, European Investment Fund (EIF)
• Giorgio Venceslai, Executive Director, ISMEA, Italy
• Kiril Velitchkov, Director European Projects and Financial Institutions, UBB, Bulgaria, Manager of KBC Group European Financial Instruments Competence Center

Closing Remarks

• Chairman of AECM