Sarajevo, 09/11/2000 (Agence Europe) - Spasoje Tusevijak, Minister of Treasury of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and EIB Vice-President Ewald Nowotny signed, in Sarajevo, a framework agreement laying the basis for future EIB activity in Bosnia-Herzegovina, under the lending mandate for 2000-2007 for Central and Eastern Europe, which was recently extended to the activities of the European Investment Bank in this country. The Bank will finance in this context the investment projects that will later contribute to rebuilding the country and strengthening its economic base.
On the same occasion, the State of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the EIB signed a financing contract worth EUR 60 million which will be transferred to the Federation of Bosnia and to the Republika Srpska in order to contribute to a EUR 234 million project for the reconstruction of Bosnia and Herzegovina's power transmission and distribution systems. The project, which will begin in 2001 and run for three years, is cofunded by the World Bank and by the EBRD, and is part of the "Quick Start" package endorsed by the Regional Funding Conference for South-Eastern Europe in March 2000.