If I may, I shall come to that point later.

It is important to understand that the bank has a broad and demanding remit. It is not to act alone; it is to act as a catalyst. It will not substitute for or supplant private finance. However, it will have a major part to play in promoting, co-ordinating and encouraging the investment of private capital and expertise without which economic regeneration cannot be achieved.

I draw the particular attention of the House to the new bank's stress on environmentally sustainable investment. As we all know, decades of under-investment have brought eastern Europe close to an environmental catastrophe that is not limited to the boundaries of central and eastern Europe. The west has learnt and is still learning from its own environmental experience. We have much to offer by way of industrial processes and expertise. We want the new bank to make a contribution from the very start to environmental regeneration.

Britain is already helping eastern Europe through our know-how fund. British electricity utilities are co-operating with Poland on ways of conserving energy and reducing the environmental damage done by burning brown coal. Similar help is envisaged for Czechoslovakia, and a reconnaissance team from the Department of the Environment recently visited Czechoslovakia for those purposes.

The priority now, then, is twofold. First, it is to establish the investment needs in eastern and central Europe; secondly, it is to get the new bank up and running as soon as possible, with a sound operational structure. As host nation and one of the principal shareholders, we undertake to play our full part. That has been our aim since we first became involved in the process.

Of course, while reports confirm that, throughout central and eastern Europe, private entrepreneurs have responded to the challenge to meet newly released consumer demand, it would not be realistic to expect a fully functioning private sector to emerge overnight on the scale required, which is enormous.