SKOPJE (Macedonia), February 6 (SeeNews) – The World Bank said its board of executive directors has approved a 46 million euro ($50.7 million) loan, to be used to finance an agriculture modernization project in North Macedonia.
“The project aims to improve competitiveness in targeted agricultural sub-sectors and strengthen agricultural public sector readiness for EU accession,” the World Bank said in a statement last week.
The loan has a maturity of 12 years and a grace period of four years.
According to the project description published on the World Bank’s website, aligning agricultural production with EU accession requirements implies costs for producers and institutions and requires investments in both private production units and public goods.
“The project aims to support some of these investments and to strengthen the capacity of the different private and public actors for the more competitive markets that would come with a future EU accession,” the World Bank said.
The global lender noted that project investments will help improve productivity of small and medium scale producers, provide higher incomes for producers, improve market access as well as improve government systems and efficiency gains that strengthen the enabling environment for agricultural producers in terms of absorption of EU (IPARD) and national scheme funds.
The European Commission said last month that it will continue to push for the opening of accession negotiations with North Macedonia as part of its priorities for 2020. The European Council granted the status of candidate country for EU membership to North Macedonia in 2005.
($= 0.90741 euro)