PRISTINA (Kosovo), January 17 (SeeNews) – Kosovo's finance ministry said on Thursday it signed a 1 million euro ($1.14 million) grant agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB) for the construction of a 31 km motorway section.
“This grant agreement completes the financing of the construction of the Kijev-Zahaq section, for which we has already signed two loan agreements - with the EIB and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD),” Kosovo's finance minister Bedri Hamza said in a statement.
An additional 3.2 million euro in grant funding for the preparation of the project has been provided under the Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF), Hamza added.
The technical assistance grant of 1 million euro was provided under EIB’s Economic Resilience Initiative (ERI), the bank said in a separate statement.
"This is the first EIB’s ERI technical assistance grant awarded to a project in Kosovo and the second in the Western Balkans region," EIB said.
The bank also said it is backing the construction of the motorway, linking Kosovo's capital Pristina to the border with Montenegro (part of the South East Europe Transport Observatory - SEETO Route 6B), with a loan of 80 million euro signed last May - the largest ever signed by EIB in the country so far.
In December, the EBRD said it is extending a 71 million euro loan to Kosovo's government for the construction of the motorway section connecting Kijeve village near the capital Pristina with Zahaq village near the city of Peja.
($ =0.87702 euro)