Luxemburg, 11/12/2006 (Agence Europe) - The European Investment Bank (EIB) has just granted a loan of €80 million to Serbia for the modernisation of the country's hospital sector, and a further €80 million for up-grading the Serbian rail network.
The loan extended for the modernisation of the hospital centres is the first tranche of a €200 million loan to finance the modernisation, redevelopment and extension of the country's four tertiary care hospitals in the major Serbian cities of Belgrade, Kragujevac, Nis and Novi Sad. The project involves the design, construction, equipping and bringing into service of new buildings and a major up-grading of existing hospital buildings, as well as a number of smaller investments in, among other things, education and training of hospital staff, the improvement of standards of patient care, and the introduction of a new waste disposal system.
The loan extended for the up-grading of the Serbian railways track and rolling stock will finance the modernisation of three sections of the country's rail network along the Pan-European Corridor X linking Salzburg and Thessaloniki, via Ljubljana, Zagreb, Belgrade, Nis, Skopje and Veles. Once complete, the project will improve transport safety and capacity by removing major bottlenecks in the railway system in Serbia, a significant transit country in the Balkan Peninsula.
The EIB says in a press release that these two projects are a continuation of the successful cooperation with the European Agency for Reconstruction (EAR), the Worlds Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in the Western Balkans with a view to fostering prospects of European integration. (ol)