An agreement has been signed for the provision of a $150 million loan to Belarus by the World Bank.

November 19, Minsk /BELTA correspondent/. An agreement on granting the Republic of Belarus a World Bank loan of $150 million was signed today in Minsk, BELTA reports.

The funds will be allocated to the "Road Improvement and Modernisation" project. The agreement was signed by the Minister of Transport and Communications of Belarus, Ivan Shcherbo, and the Head of the World Bank Representation in Belarus, Ivan Veleva.

The decision to grant the loan was made by the Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank on November 11, 2010. The objective of this project is to facilitate the development of the transport infrastructure of a strategic transit corridor and the introduction of an electronic road toll payment system. In the first stage of the project, for which $131 million is allocated, measures will be taken to re-equip road sections with two lanes between Minsk and Bobruisk, with a total length of 53 km. A four-lane highway will be created. The reconstructed road section is part of the Trans-European Transport Corridor IX, connecting the Black Sea with the Baltic countries.

As noted by Ivan Shcherbo, a small section of the road, 53 km, will be reconstructed, but it needs to be brought to the first category of European standards. High-quality road surface will be laid, infrastructure will be provided, and the highway will meet all necessary transport safety requirements.

The loan is provided by the World Bank for 15 years with a grace period of 5 years for the repayment of the principal debt. The project implementation will begin in March 2011 and will take 4 years.

According to Ivan Veleva, this is the World Bank's first road project in Belarus. It once again confirms the constructive cooperation between Belarus and the WB. "This is the largest investment project of the World Bank in Belarus since 1992," emphasised Ivan Veleva. "The project is very beneficial; it will positively affect Belarus's external balance and trade turnover, its transit attractiveness, create new jobs, and a larger share of transport flows will go through Belarus," noted the Head of Representation.

Belarus became a member of the World Bank in 1992. During this period, a total of $643 million has been allocated to the country for the implementation of nine projects; approximately 30 national programs have received grant support totaling $18 million. Currently, Belarus is using World Bank funds to finance four infrastructure development projects.

At the end of 2009, the World Bank adopted an updated Cooperation Strategy with Belarus for 2008-2011. The document provides for an increase in the annual available amount of financial assistance to Belarus from $100 million to $250 million in 2010-2011. This will strengthen joint work on mutually beneficial projects.

In December 2009, Belarus received a development policy loan from the World Bank in the amount of $200 million.

As previously reported by BELTA, in 2011, the World Bank may provide Belarus with another development policy loan in the amount of $100 million, subject to progress in structural reforms. However, the final level of lending will depend on the overall lending capacity of the World Bank. -0-

BELTA