Luxembourg, 06/12/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Investment Bank granted loans to Belize for a total of EUR 13.2 million for the restructuring of the agricultural sector. This concerns:
- A credit line of EUR 5 million on venture capital granted to the Development Finance Corporation (DFC), which will retrocede it to small; farmers for them to replant former citrus fruit plantations, over an estimated surface area of 1,416 hectares.
- A loan of 3.2 million for venture capital to partly finance the acquisition of a stake in the Citrus Growers Association (CGA) in the citrus fruit processing company Del Oro Belize.
- A loan of 5 million from the Bank's own resources, to the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC), for the development of two processing factories.
The EIB underlines in its press release that the project "will have positive effects on the balance of payments and safeguard the jobs of some 1,500 people. It will also generate considerable indirect advantages in other sectors of the economy". The payments are granted in the framework of the EU/ACP Convention.
