The Council of Ministers approved last week the loan agreement between the Republic of Albania and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for financing the project of Local and Regional Roads.

The government of Albania has undertaken implementation of an important project on “secondary and local roads” worth USD 300-400 million.

The main objectives of the programme are to improve access to markets and essential services through facilitation of movement throughout the year for the citizens, the improvement of the priority segments of the local network and strengthening of management of the regional and local road network included.

The project will be co-financed respectively by EBRD with Euro 50, 000, 000; European Investment Bank (BEI) with Euro 50,000,000 and 33,000,000 Euros with the Pre-Adherence Instrument Funds IPA 2010/2011.

Likewise, Western Balkan Investment Fund (WBIF) will make available a 40,000,000 Euro grant. In this framework, the parallel financing has been assured by a number of other institutions like the World Bank, OFID and the Council of Europe Development Bank.