Finland Times

 

The European Investment Bank (EIB) agreed on Monday to provide two loans worth 600 million euros (about 735.47 million U.S. dollars) to support early recovery and small and medium-sized enterprise(SME) sector in Ukraine.

     

According to a press release issued on the web-site of the Luxembourg-based organization, one loan worth 200 million euros will finance early recovery of small-scale damaged infrastructure in order to cope with the consequences of the conflict ravaging parts of East Ukraine.

     

The Ukraine Early Recovery loan will back undertakings to re-establish and improve public service delivery of water and sanitation, electricity, and heating. It also covers repairs of roads and railways and the reconstruction of destroyed bridges and the refurbishment of damaged public buildings, including administrative buildings, schools, health centres and hospitals, postal services, and other social infrastructure.

     

Another loan, worth 400 million euros, will support projects promoted by SMEs and midcaps, to address the scarcity of long-term funding in the private sector in Ukraine which has been aggravated by the current political and economic unrest.

     

The two loans were under the Bank's 2014-2016 3 billion-euro lending plan to Ukraine.