Thursday, April 21, 2005

World Bank Grants 10 Mln Euro To Back Power Projects in Kosovo

PRISTINA (Serbia and Montenegro), April 21 (SeeNews) - The World Bank has granted 10 million euro ($13.07 million) to Kosovo to improve the electricity supply network of the U.N.-run southern Serbian province, media said on Thursday.

Kosovo power utility KEK would use the money to finance four projects, to be implemented in the next 18 months, Kosovo broadcaster RTK reported.

"The World Bank, which has provided so far 95 million euro, will continue with both investments and technical assistance to Kosovo," the World Bank's representative in Kosovo Kanthan Shankar told reporters.

"The World Bank's financing is very important to us, because Kosovo could hardly sign credit agreements, due to its unresolved status," Kosovo's Minister of Finance and Economy Haki Shatri said.

Kosovo, population two million, is legally part of the loose union of Serbia and Montenegro that replaced rump Yugoslavia two years ago. The province has been under U.N. administration after NATO bombed Serbia in 1999 to halt Serb repression of the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo.

The talks on Kosovo's final status are expected to start in the autumn if the province shows by mid-year enough progress on implementing a list of U.N. requirements, known as the "standards".

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

How much money did Milosevic and the other Serb thieves steal from this enterprise?

Anonymous said...

The World Bank should finance project for sustainable energy resources, such as wind which can be used in Kosova/Kosovo.

The air pollution caused by the power plants is massive, there MUST be a move toward cleaner resources.