EIB to back reconstruction in Serbia

BELGRADE - The European Investment Bank (EIB) is ready to help Serbia rebuild the infrastructure damaged by floods, but ongoing construction projects must be carried out much more efficiently, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Zorana Mihajlovic and an EIB delegation concluded during a meeting on Wednesday.

Immediate damage to critical transport, telecommunication and energy infrastructure amounts to nearly EUR 300 million, with damage to local self-government authorities estimated preliminarily at the same amount, Mihajlovic said during the meeting with the EIB delegation, headed by Dominique Courbin, who is in charge of the organisation's department for Western Balkans.

Repairing the damage to infrastructure - in particular road infrastructure - will be a priority for the government and must be completed by October, and the same applies to constructing new residential buildings for citizens whose homes have been completely destroyed by the floods, Mihajlovic said.

Simultaneously, the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure and state enterprises will do everything to speed up the projects on Corridor 10, the Belgrade bypass and railway infrastructure, which have been running late significantly over the past period, the ministry said in a statement.

In coordination with the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Commission, the EIB is ready to back Serbia's efforts to repair the flood-caused damage as soon as possible, Courbin said.

The support would primarily imply the possibility of redirecting some of the loan funds for rehabilitation of roads and improvement of road infrastructure to reconstruction of roads and other infrastructure damaged by the...