KOSOVO: The European Bank for Reconstruction & Development has signed a €39·9m senior loan with infrastructure manager Infrakos to finance a three-stage modernisation of the 148 km railway linking Macedonia with Serbia via Fushë Kosovë and Mitrovicë.
EBRD will also support improvements to asset management, track access charges and workforce diversity and gender equality.
The European Investment Bank is also contributing to the project, and there will be ‘significant donor support’ from the EU.
This is EBRD’s largest transaction in Kosovo, and the first in its transport sector. ‘The rehabilitation of Kosovo’s only international rail link is vital for the country’s further integration into regional and international markets’, said EBRD First Vice-President Phil Bennett when the agreement was signed in London on September 4. ‘Improved transport links will greatly contribute to enhanced regional and pan-European trade and co-operation.’
