The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will provide EUR 200 million, which will allow completion of a much-needed rehabilitation of road approaches to the Ukrainian capital, for a macro-economic stabilization programme with the International Monetary Fund is approved.
EBRD Principal Adviser for External Affairs Anton Usov told
Interfax-Ukraine that the board of directors approved the project at a
meeting on April 8.
He said that this first decision to credit the public sector in
Ukraine after a long break jointly with a loan of EUR 150 million
approved on the same day to support the bank’s existing clients in
Ukraine’s real sector is part of the EBRD operational response in
Ukraine approved by its board on March 25, 2014.
” The bank is now ready to step up and broaden the scope of its
investments in the country and reinforce this effort by technical
assistance and extensive policy dialogue,” he said, citing a bank report
issued after the approval of the projects.
He reminded that the project totally worth EUR 450 million was
approved in 2010. A first tranche of EUR 250 million was provided and
successfully used to rehabilitate the final stretch of the M06 motorway
between Kyiv and Zhytomyr (137.9 kilometers), which is part of the Pan
European Corridors III and V, and a section of M07 Kyiv-Kovel (44.9
kilometers).
Usov said that the funds of the second tranche will be used to
complete sections of M05 Kyiv-Odesa (74.3 kilometers) and M01
Kyiv-Chernihiv (79.4 kilometers), which form part of the key Pan
European Corridor IX. The project will also cover sections of N01 (Kyiv –
Znamianka, 28.7 kilometers) and R02 (Kyiv – Ivankiv – Ovruch, 36.6
kilometers) roads and the reconstruction of the Zhytomyr bypass.
As reported, in 2010, the total cost of the project on rehabilitation
of road approaches to Kyiv was assessed at EUR 1.1 billion with EUR 450
million paid each by the EBRD and the European Investment Bank (EIB).
The State Road Agency of Ukraine (Ukravtodor) is the receiver of the
funds. The agreement with the EBRD was signed in November 2010. The
agreement foresees the provision of a 15-year loan at Libor+1 with a
four-year grace period. The agreement with the EIB on the provision of
EUR 450 million for 20 years at EURIBOR + 0.7% with a five-year grace
period was signed in May 2011.
The EBRD is the largest financial investor in Ukraine. As of April 1,
2014 the bank had committed EUR 8.9 billion through 326 projects in the
country.
