World Bank to provide Belarus with $125mn loan
Washington – According to Belarusian news agency Belta, the World Bank and Belarus have agreed on a $125 million draft loan for a new energy-effectiveness project.
The draft loan agreement is subject to approval by the Board of Directors of the World Bank before it will be officially signed. Belarus has not gained much aid from the World Bank in recent years and, if approved, this will be one of the largest projects sponsored by this intergovernmental organization in Belarus.
The $125 million World Bank loan will be used to assimilate energy-effective technologies at municipal boiler plants and at major power installations. The project envisages modernizing energy generating equipment in Barysau, Mahiliou, Ruba, Ashmiany, and Rechytsa.
The initiative was preceded by successful accomplishment of previous World Bank projects in Belarus. In particular, the modernisation of social infrastructure (the first loan totalled $22.6 million, the extra loan — $15 million) and rehabilitation of Chernobyl-affected areas ($50 million).
Eurasia Daily Monitor: Lukashenka Lashes Out at Opposition
WASHINGTON – David Marples in his recent piece in Eurasia Daily Monitor analyzed how Belarusian auhorities view the opposition and concluded that
the government is unprepared for and unwilling to participate in any dialogue with the opposition. To brand the UDF’s leaders as “enemies of the people” not only tries to exclude them from the discussions, it indicates that in the president’s mind they are criminals. The phrase itself has echoes of Stalinism and indicates a deeply inherent fear within the Belarusian leadership that it might lose control over the Eastern Partnership process.
Read the full text in Eurasia Daily Monitor.
