Tuesday, December 18, 2007

WORLD BANK PRESENTED NEW STRATEGY FOR BOSNIA

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (December 18,2007) - The World Bank mission in Bosnia presented yesterday its new strategy for the country, launching a new four-year lending cycle and announcing loans of 200 million US Dollars for development projects.

New loans come in addition to 200 million USD in loans that the World Bank had already approved earlier.

'We are talking about 400 million USD over the next four years of development projects with assistance from the World Bank,' World Bank Country Manager for Bosnia Marco Mantovanelli told reporters in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo.

The World Bank would support investments in infrastructure, municipal development, transport and energy sectors, business environment, public sector reform, and social sectors reform through this programme.

More funds would be available with the progress of reforms in Bosnia,Mantovanelli said.

He also said that Bosnia would move in the next four years from borrowing under soft conditions, including interest-free loans with repayment over 35 years and a 10-year grace period, to more commercial, but still relatively cheap borrowing under conditions of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).

'The transition to IBRD indicates that we have confidence the country is moving in the right direction,' said Mantovanelli.

The World Bank has committed about 1.2 billion US Dollars in favorable loans to Bosnia since the end of the Serbian,Montenegrin and Croatian aggressions against Bosnia ended in late 1995.

No comments: