EBRD to lend Albania up to 50 million euro for road upgrades

TIRANA, Dec 5ؔhe European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said on Friday it was considering lending up to 50 million euro ($74.4 million) for the upgrade of up to 500 kilometers of regional and local roads in Albania. The country has a total of 1,500 kilometers of rural road earmarked for repairs.
The project, estimated to cost 137 million euro, is co-financed by the European Investment Bank and is supported with IPA funds, the EBRD said in a statement.
The Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) is the European Union’s financial tool for pre-accession activities.
The project is part of a wider programme of regional and local road rehabilitation, parallel-financed by the World Bank, the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) and the OPEC Fund for International Development. The main objectives of the programme are to improve access to markets and essential services, supporting the economic development of rural areas and their integration into the national economy, the EBRD said.
CEB has agreed to lend 40 million euro for the project, Albania’s Finance Ministry said in March.
The EBRD loan is pending final approval in February.
Last week, EBRD agreed to finance a project for the development of the roads network in the Tirana municipality, the capital of Albania.
The EBRD is the largest institutional investor in Albania where it has been investing since 1993. The Bank is concentrating on developing the private sector and emphasizing infrastructure development as an integral part of business progress. The present focus for infrastructure activity is the restructuring and rehabilitation of the energy sector and the development of transport and telecommunications networks.
EBRD is involved in 36 projects, some of them completed, in Albania for a total projected value of 1.673 billion euro.