Sir Suma Chakrabarti is the president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and spoke to India Inc about the multilateral organisation's connect with India.The EBRD, which uses investment as a tool to help build market economies around the world, invests mainly in the private sector in emerging Europe and the Middle East and the North African countries of Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia.Its India-born chief has extensive experience in international development economics and policy-making, as well as in designing and implementing wider public service reform.Since his last visit to India in March 2013, the bank has been working with Indian companies to explore projects of mutual benefit to invest in. A hydro power project in Georgia with the Tata Group has been chalked out and could come to fruition this year. The project, alongside a Norwegian green energy company, will sell both to Georgia and Turkey.Sir Suma followed up on the discussions at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos earlier this year with Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mistry.“I am looking forward to my meeting with Mr Mistry, who I will be meeting for the first time since he took over as chairman,” he said.The former British civil servant and permanent secretary in the ministry of justice also welcomed India′s interest in becoming a member of the EBRD.He said: “India has expressed an interest and there are a number of advantages if it were to apply for membership. You don′t have to be a member-state for the EBRD to invest but becoming a member would make it natural for the management here to put more effort into our engagement with the Indian government and companies.“Secondly, Indian nationals can then become employees of this organisation, which gives Indians the chance of another professional career in another part of the world.“Another benefit is that this is a part of the world where India has very strong relationships in foreign policy and commercial terms - the former Soviet Union countries and central Europe and also North Africa. So there are plenty of opportunities that will open up.”The EBRD invests across the economic spectrum in the countries where it is active - but sectors of particular interest for Indian companies could be manufacturing and services, such as petrochemicals, automotives, metal and steel production, as well as agribusiness, communications and information technology.“There has already been good cooperation with Indian companies in the past. But given the size of the Indian private sector and its existing interest in EBRD countries of operations the cooperation should be much greater,” he said.The cumulative value of joint India-EBRD investments since the EBRD started operations in 1991 stood at €806.8 million as of December 2012.The EBRD admitted that 2013 was not an easy one for financing in its regions of operation and conditions have been tough due to the economic crisis.However, the bank expects a net profit of €1 billion for 2013 and the number of individual projects it has financed stand at 392 in 2013, almost matching the record high of 393 in 2012. The above article was published in India Inc′s print edition of the India Investment Journal launched in April 2014 in conjunction with the Global Wealth Management Conclave 2014.