Business news

12 Sep 2016

Belarus suggests road construction, utilities industry projects to World Bank

MINSK, 12 September (BelTA) – Belarus has suggested joint projects in the area of road construction and utilities industry to the World Bank. The relevant matters were discussed during the meeting of Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Anatoly Kalinin and World Bank Country Director for Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine Satu Kahkonen, BelTA has learned.

Anatoly Kalinin noted that the total volume of money Belarus has borrowed from the World Bank to implement various projects in the country is close to $1 billion. “We always tightly cooperate with your representatives, achieve common goals. I would like to mention the highly competent work of World Bank Country Manager for Belarus Young Chul Kim and his team. In addition to discussing project financing we inspect the implementation of projects together. It allows us to find the most beneficial technical design solutions and use the borrowed money with maximum effect,” he stressed.

The Belarusian government and the World Bank have already implemented a number of infrastructure projects in the area of road construction. “Both the World Bank and our government believe that we can effectively implement such projects. Apart from that, upon proposals of the World Bank we take part in Ukrainian projects to build infrastructure and in projects in Kazakhstan and Russia. It means our road construction specialists are highly competent,” said Anatoly Kalinin.

Belarus is reconstructing the M6 motorway together with the World Bank. “The project will be implemented within the specified timeframe. We may even accomplish it sooner,” added Anatoly Kalinin. The Deputy Prime Minister suggested adding 76km of the motorway that was not initially part of the project.

Apart from that, Anatoly Kalinin suggested utilities industry projects to the World Bank. In particular, the World Bank was invited to participate in getting the city of Minsk to use only underground water. “There is another proposal concerning a project on using local fuel for heating purposes in the utilities industry. We estimate it at $60 million,” he explained.

The Deputy Prime Minister noted that projects in the utilities industry are already being implemented with assistance of the World Bank. Belarus honors its commitments as part of these projects always on time.

In turn, World Bank Country Director for Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine Satu Kahkonen stated that the bank intends to continue tight cooperation with the Belarusian government.