In our meeting with the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department (FAD) and Institute for Capacity Development (ICD), we met with Rodrigo Valdés, FAD Director; Era Dabla-Norris and Juan Toro Rivera, FAD Deputy Directors; and Catriona Purfield, ICD Director, and Andrew Berg, ICD Deputy Director. We reflected on more than two decades of cooperation between CEF and FAD and reaffirmed our commitment to continued collaboration under the South East Europe Technical Assistance Coordination (SEETAC) initiative.

Our meeting with the IMF’s European Department (EUR), represented by Director Mateusz Szczurek and Deputy Director Mark Horton, focused on SEETAC’s governance and coordination mechanisms and opportunities to build on the long-standing cooperation between CEF and the IMF. We welcomed the IMF’s invitation to participate in the SEETAC Steering Committee as an observer. We also discussed the complementary roles of CEF, SEETAC, and other capacity development providers in pursuing shared objectives.

The meeting was joined also by members of the CEF Governing Board, including Victoria Belous, Minister of Finance of Moldova; Natalia Sclearuc, Head of the Budget Synthesis Division at Moldova’s Ministry of Finance; Petru Rotaru, First Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Moldova; Tatiana Ivanicichina, Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Moldova; and Serban Matei, Director of the International Relations Department at the National Bank of Romania, the CEF's current chairing institution.

Across these discussions, we explored opportunities to organize peer learning activities that address technical needs associated with European Union accession and improve coordination among capacity development providers. We also discussed how CEF’s focus on institutional capacity building and knowledge retention complements and reinforces the IMF’s technical assistance, helping institutions retain and apply expertise beyond individual interventions.

During our meeting with Marina Moretti, Deputy Director of the IMF’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department (MCM), we shared updates on our activities, including the National Bank of Moldova’s Learning Organization Laboratory (NBM LearnOrgLab), and discussed future cooperation in central banking under SEETAC. We explored opportunities to involve MCM experts in our central banking program and coordinate upcoming activities. We also discussed the further development of the Banking Resolution Strategy (BRS) Community, which grew out of earlier cooperation between CEF and MCM, and identified areas of complementarity between CEF’s activities and SEETAC.

Through these exchanges, we are working to strengthen partnerships and connect technical expertise with peer learning, helping public institutions in the region build their capabilities and apply knowledge in practice.