Former Ambassador Pamela Hyde Smith Speeches

Ambassador Pamela Hyde Smith at a Site-Visit to Vitanta-Intravest

December 3, 2002

Dear (Government/Parliament leaders), Mr. Tichman, Ms.Jarenco, Mr. Kent, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I am delighted to have an opportunity to visit Vitanta-Intravest("Vitanta") on such a special day. Today we see the value created by a strong partnership bettween U.S. and Moldovan investors and recognition of that strength by Efes, a dymanic new foreign investor attracted to the Moldovan market by Vitanta's successes to date and the promise it represents to the future.

As a representative of the U.S. Government, I take a special pride in the role of the U.S. investor in Vitanta, the Western NIS Enterprise Fund. Created by the U.S. Congress in 1994 to provide capital and support for the development of small and medium sized business in region, WNISEF's capital investment and partnership with Vitanta's minorityshareholders and Vitanta's management have enabled this extraordinary success. The fusion of Moldovan talents, U.S. capital and international best business practices are key to the results we see (and taste!)

WNISEF brought to Vitanta its experiense and expertise in strategy, operations, finance, brand development, and recruitment, as well as world-class brewery experts in the area of manufacturing and marketing. In addition , it finetuned international standards of corporate governance and transparency to the Moldovan legal framework, to ensure that all shareholders were benfiting equally from Vitanta's market leadership and profitability. At the same time, WNISEF worked to ensure that Vitanta was a role model of corporate citizenship withinthe community, as evidenced most recently by its sponsorship of the arts.

Vitanta, WNISEF and now Efes are demonstrating to the global financial community that inovative and profitable business activity can be undertaken in Moldova's emerging markets in a fair, transparent and successeful manner.

As new challenges lie ahead for all, I wish Vitanta, WNISEF, and Efes continued success in their growth and development of the Moldovan market

Thank you.