The international Dubrovnik Economic Conference, organised by the Croatian National Bank for the 15th consecutive year opens today, bringing together several dozens of renowned scientists from prestigious universities around the world, representatives of major international financial institutions, and domestic as well as foreign monetary and economic policy practitioners.

The gathering will focus on reviewing the causes and effects of the current financial crisis and the ways of its overcoming, banking sector regulatory reforms and the impact of the ownership structure of banks on their investment, innovation and stability. Another group of topics relates to the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall's collapse and the results of the past transition period, as well as to the effects of EU accession and euro membership on the economic development of new Member States in the past five years, but also in the pre-accession period. An occasional presentation by the deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Murilo Portugal, to be held on Friday, is also awaited with great interest and it will deal with the impact of the global financial crisis on the reform of this important financial institution.

This year, the official part of the conference was again opened on Wednesday by presentations given by a number of young analysts from the Croatian National Bank, as well as from the Faculty of Economics Split and Faculty of Economics Rijeka, whose papers were commented on by more experienced and acknowledged domestic and foreign economists.

The successful organisation of this conference started in the turmoil of war, and it has been regularly attended by a great number of world's eminent economic experts. Even some economy Nobel Prize winners (e.g. Robert Mundell and Edmond Phelps) presented their views and forecasts at the conference during its fifteen-year history.