World Bank approves loans for Kyrgyzstan

According to the release, World Bank's Board of Executive Directors on November 3 approved the following project: 'Kyrgyz Republic: National Road Rehabilitation Project. It says it approved the Osh-Batken-Isfana automobile road modernisation project. For these purposes the WB provides as a loan and grand a total of 25 million US dollars. Besides, 8 million US dollars are given as additional financing of various investment projects for the development of the republic's rural areas. It assigns 1 million US dollars to Bishkek as a grant of the Global Ecological Fund for support of natural reserve zones in the Tyan-Shan mountain system area. Within the same project the WB provides a 25-million dollar grant to Kazakhstan.

According to the WB release, it provided to Kyrgyzstan an IDA Credit: US$13.75 million equivalent on the following terms - maturity = 40 years; Grace Period = 10 years. IDA Grant: US$11.25 million equivalent.

Project Description: The National Road Rehabilitation (Osh-Isfana) Project for the Kyrgyz Republic aims to contribute to the reduction of transport costs and travel time along the Osh-Batken-Isfana road corridor; and to improve road safety planning. There are three components to the project: 1) rehabilitation of a section of the Osh-Batken-Isfana road corridor; 2) road safety planning improvement; and 3) project management and implementation, the WB release says; Kazinform cites ITAR-TASS.

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