BANJA LUKA (Bosnia and Herzegovina), September 14 (SeeNews) – Bosnia's Serb Republic has issued guarantees for two loan deals of its motorway operator with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development worth a total of 80 million euro ($93.6 million), the entity's finance ministry said.
The guarantee agreeements were signed in Banja Luka on Thursday by the Serb Republic finance minister, Zoran Tegeltija, and Ian Brown, EBRD head of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the finance ministry said in a statement.
The motorway operator of the Serb Republic, Autoputevi RS, will use the EBRD loans to finance road infrastructure works.
A 10 million euro loan will be directed towards the completion of the Banja Luka-Doboj motorway, while a loan of 70 million euro will be used to finace construction of new motorway sections of pan-European Corridor Vc, the ministry explained.
Corridor Vc is the main international transport corridor in Bosnia and Herzegovina and its development is a strategic priority for the country. The road is part of the Western Balkans Core Network. It has been established as an extension of the Trans-European Transport Networks and will eventually link the Hungarian capital Budapest with the Croatian port of Ploce.
The Serb Republic is one of two entities that form Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other is the Federation.
($=0.854602 euro)