WASHINGTON, March 29 (Hina) - The World Bank on Wednesday issued a summary of funding requirements for projects within the Stability Pact for the South East of Europe which should be financed by funds gathered at the Regional funding
Conference in Brussels on Wednesday and Thursday.
WASHINGTON, March 29 (Hina) - The World Bank on Wednesday issued a
summary of funding requirements for projects within the Stability
Pact for the South East of Europe which should be financed by funds
gathered at the Regional funding Conference in Brussels on
Wednesday and Thursday. #L#
For the four groups of projects 1,800,143,578 euro will be needed.
Most of the sum -- around 1.5 billion euro -- would be allocated to
projects of Working Table II pertaining to the economy and
reconstruction.
The development of infrastructure would be financed by 1.13 billion
euro. The motion of the European Investment Bank contains three
groups of infrastructure projects -- quick-start packages which
would be realised by the suggested funds, near-term ones for which
2.73 euro billion are necessary, and medium-term, the worth of
which has not been assessed.
Projects of the Working Table II also encompass stimulation of the
development of the private sector with 290 million euro, 19.5
million euro for environment protection programmes, 6.5 million
euro for training and education and 2 million euro for investment
assessments.
The funding conference should also secure 268 million euro for
projects of the Stability Pact Working Table I pertaining to the
promotion and protection of human and minority rights.
Individually the biggest amount of 231.4 million euro is intended
for the return of refugees and displaced persons.
To this goal the European Commission will provide 163 million euro,
The Netherlands will ensure 20 million euro for the return of
refugees to Bosnia-Herzegovina, the United States more than 13
million euro and Germany 3 million euro.
Defence and security projects, as well as those for consolidating
the judicial system, will cost less than 78 million euro, and 5.16
million are intended for the struggle against corruption, the World
Bank's social development initiative and projects of care for
persons suffering from the consequences of war.
European Commission Member Chris Patten said he believed that,
judging by its good start, the Conference can help collect between
1.7 and 1.8 billion euro for financing infrastructure projects,
evaluated and proposed by the European Investment Bank.
Ahead of the start of the Brussels conference, it was unofficially
confirmed that among projects from Croatia, a 23-km-long section of
the Zagreb-Varazdin highway (Breznicki Hum-Varazdin) stands the
best chance of winning the necessary financial assistance.
As part of the pan-European B5 corridor (Rijeka-Zagreb-Budapest),
this section meets the conference's criteria for the funding of
"quick-start" projects.
Speaking at the Regional Funding Conference on Wednesday,
Croatia's Foreign Minister Tonino Picula accentuated the
importance of the programme of voluntary return of 16,500 Croat
refugees to Yugoslavia and Bosnia-Herzegovina for which Croatia
needed US$55.6 million of financial assistance from the
international community.
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