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EBRD helps improve roads in FYR Macedonia
€40 million loan to ease congestion, upgrade important highway
Traffic congestion in Skopje, FYR Macedonia’s capital city, should ease with the help of a €40 million EBRD loan to the Fund for National and Regional Roads, the state-owned road agency.
The 15-year loan will help finance the second phase of the Skopje bypass – the western side of an 11km section of road circling the city – to smooth traffic flows, cut journey times and reduce pollution levels in the capital. Vehicles using the bypass should increase from an initial 9,000 per day to 20,000 by 2025, significantly reducing the burden in the city. A portion of the loan will also help upgrade a section of Corridor X – part of the pan-European network of roads – from Smokvica to Gevgelia, important for improving tourism, trade and transport for local citizens. Vehicles using this highway should increase from 3,900 to 11,800 per day by 2020.
The loan is also expected to help introduce new methodologies for road-sector reform to the road agency, in particular for selecting priority areas that require upgrading, and for increasing competition for road-sector maintenance, currently left to one company.
Noreen Doyle, First Vice President of the EBRD, said at a signing ceremony in Skopje that the project is part of the EBRD’s strategy to work with other international financial institutions, local governments and, in some instances, the private sector to develop roads and bypasses across the western Balkans and beyond. Ms Doyle added that projects like this are important for regional integration, especially given the importance of trade and tourism for spurring economic growth and political stability.
The second phase of the bypass is being co-financed with €60 million from the European Investment Bank, which provided financing in 1999 for the first phase, the eastern side of the bypass. France, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom have provided funds to support consultancy services to prepare the project. Italy will continue to support implementation of the project through the Central European Initiative. The United States Agency for International Development is also providing financing for environmental monitoring.
Mr Asip Useini the Director at the FNRR, said this project is important for both the people of Skopje and for the agency. As well as reducing traffic levels around the capital, the FNRR will learn and adopt procedures to better identify crucial road projects. At the same time, it will help us to introduce elements of competition – an important part of establishing a market economy – for road maintenance works, added Mr Useini.
The EBRD has committed €2 billion to 74 projects in the transport sector – ranging from railways to highways – across central and eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States. For road projects alone, the Bank has provided over €960 million across the region.
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