World Bank to Lend Serbia $400 Mln To Support 2009, 2010 Budgets - Econ Min

It has been agreed that the World Bank would approve a $400 million loan to Serbia in support of the country's budget, $200 million of which will be approved at the meeting of the bank’s board of directors on November 17, Dinkic said in a statement after a meeting with World Bank’s vice-president for Europe and Central Asia, Philippe Le Houerou, in Istanbul, Turkey.

The other $200 million will go towards 2010 budget support.

Referring to the construction of the Serbian section of the motorway linking linking Austria and Hungary with Turkey and the Middle East Dinkic, said the government expects to complete by the end of this month the tender for selecting the company that will do the construction works on the bypass road around Dimitrovgrad, at the border with Bulgaria. The World Bank approved in the summer a $388 million loan to Serbia for the construction of the Serbian section of the East-West transport Corridor X.

"Our plan, and we presented it to the World Bank, is to complete the corridor by the spring in 2012, which means the motorway from Horgos [at the border with Hungary] to Dimitrovgrad.”

Dinkic is in Istanbul for the annual meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

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