EBRD President Sir Suma Chakrabarti

EBRD President Sir Suma Chakrabarti believes that his bank is likely to approve Chinese membership  by Christmas, according to the Xinhua news agency, in  a week that saw China play host to the heads of 16 countries from Central and Eastern Europe for the fourth China-CEEC (Central and Eastern European countries) summit.
China  made a formal request to become a member of the EBRD last month in a move that would  open new channels for Chinese funding of infrastructure and other investments along its One Belt One Road  (OBOR) project, linking China to markets in Europe and the rest of the world. It would also considerably increase Chinese contractors’ chances of winning major infrastructure projects across the region after  Premier Li Keqiang said that the country was willing to provide more flexible funding conditions to Central and East European countries  as long as they used Chinese equipment and products. 
An EBRD official said “a senior Chinese authority” — understood to be Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China — had written to Sir Suma Chakrabarti, EBRD president, in August, proposing that China become a shareholder in the bank. Another person familiar with the matter said China would not become a country of operations for the EBRD and its shareholding would be a symbolic amount, “just to let them say they are a shareholder”. FT

poland

In talks with Poland’s President Andrzej Duda yesterday, Xi called on the two countries to explore using Poland as a hub for logistical cooperation with central and eastern Europe, and for cooperation over OBOR. “We would like to see Poland push the [OBOR] initiative to connect with the EU development strategy,” Xi said as he joined his guests on a high-speed bullet train from Suzhou to Shanghai.