BELGRADE (Serbia), July 12 (SeeNews) – The European Investment Bank (EIB) has signed a 2.7 million euro ($3 million) technical assistance grant to support development of inland waterway network on the Danube and Sava rivers in Serbia, the bank said on Friday.
The grant under the Economic Resilience Initiative (ERI) will support the preparation and implementation of the 200 million euro investment in a number of projects to be implemented from 2019, the EIB said in a statement.
"Serbia is committed to the development and investments in all types of infrastructure projects, including inland water transport where the total value of the projects is over 200 million euro. Some of the most important projects are implemented with EIB, such as the reconstruction of the Iron Gate 1 Navigational Lock, the expansion of Port of Smederevo, or the removal of the German sunken vessels from the World War II," Serbian infrastructure minister Zorana Mihajlovic said.
"The main goal of these investments is to enable a much better use of the Danube as a transport corridor, to have more goods transported by using our inland waterways," Mihajlovic added.
Serbia has already signed a 100 million euro loan from EIB earlier this year to improve functioning of the inland waterways navigation along the Danube and Sava rivers on its territory, which are part of the Trans-European Transport Network priority project Rhine/Meuse-Main-Danube inland waterway axis.
The project will support a shift from road to waterway transport and will improve services to the local and regional industries as well as positively impact the agricultural sector, support economic growth and create jobs. The investments will also improve safety of navigation and enhance connections between European countries and regional cooperation.
($ = 0.888249 euro)