The financing, which has been extended to Vodovod i Kanalizacija Bijeljina, a water services company that manages the water supply system of Bijeljina, includes a EUR5m sovereign loan from the EBRD, EUR6.5m grant funding from the EU and EUR4m grant from SIDA.
The amount provided by EBRD is in addition to a previous $7m loan that EBRD had extended to Vodovod i Kanalizacija Bijeljina in 2007 to finance the initial phase of the modernization of the wastewater network in the city
The funds will be utilized for the construction of a modern wastewater treatment plant in compliance with EU environmental standards that will initially serve up to 40,000 residents and for building a wastewater collection infrastructure to further expand the plant’s capacity.
Republika Srpska minister of finance Aleksandar Dzombic said that this project is the result of the successful implementation of the previous project and continuous co-operation of the Government of Republika Srpska and the EBRD.
“In addition, the project will also help us to test the new legal structure for financing of public utilities, whereby these utilities assume more responsibility for all aspects of project implementation, through direct loan agreements with international financial institutions,” Dzombic said .
