The CEI Committee of National Coordinators has recently approved the financing of three technical cooperation projects by the CEI Fund at the EBRD entirely funded by the Italian Government.
These projects will target all the non-EU CEI Member States in priority sectors such as Energy, Transport and Capacity Building for a total cumulative cost of 595,000 EUR.
Through its Technical Cooperation Programme the Fund offers grant-type assistance in support of specific components of investments and operations of the EBRD. TC operations include support for feasibility and pre-feasibility studies, sector and environmental engineering, management training, capacity building, pre-loan audits.
Amongst the approved technical assistance projects, the “Green Economy Transition ‐ Project Preparation and Implementation Framework” financed with 250.000 EUR, will help the EBRD in supporting its clients identify and realise energy and resource efficiency, climate change adaptation and environmental protection opportunities in their own operations as well as provide targeted training and assist in better prioritising and implementing the associated investments. The CEI financing of this Programme is expected to be linked to 40 million EUR of EBRD investments mainly focused mainly on the general industry, agribusiness, power, property and tourism, transport, natural resource and municipal sector projects.
Another assignment refers to the “Preparation of a Corporate Plan for the organisational strengthening of Public Enterprise for State Roads” in Macedonia. The 200,000 EUR technical assistance will help the Macedonian Public Enterprise for State Roads Company to improve its financial management, as well as its environmental performance in the framework of a 10 million EUR EBRD investment to finance construction for the rehabilitation of a single two-lane carriageway road section. It is 13 km long stretching between Kriva Palanka and Deve Bair near the Bulgarian border, which is part of the eastern section of Pan‐European Road Corridor VIII in Macedonia.
The third technical cooperation project is titled “Investment Climate and Governance Expert for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro”. 145,000 EUR will aim at strengthening the investment climate and governance reforms in the three countries. The Investment Climate and Governance Initiative has been launched by the EBRD to strengthen transition through policy dialogue and national‐level initiatives for good governance and a better investment climate. The Initiative is designed to increase the impact of the Bank’s policy dialogue initiatives on governance and the investment climate by taking a strategic approach to their development. The Initiative focuses on one of the Bank’s core strengths: reform at the interface between public and private sectors.
For more information: dovier@cei.int
Established in 1992 by the Italian Government, the CEI Fund at the EBRD aims at assisting the Bank’s countries of operation in Central and Eastern Europe in their economic and social transformation process. Since its inception, Italy has contributed 45.5 million EUR to the Fund, the majority of which has been allocated for TC projects to which the Fund has committed around 27.5 million EUR.