The Head of the WB
office in Belgrade, Simon Grey, said that six loan contracts of that bank,
worth 238.3m USD, waited to be ratified in the Parliament of Serbia.
He said to the press that Serbia paid annual interest rate of 0.25% on that
amount, although realization of the projects that obtained the loans had not
started yet.
- Collection of interests starts after the loan contract is
signed - Grey reminded.
He said that five projects signed in July 2007 were
already in the Parliament and that they included: 43m USD for development of
Bor, 21.5m USD for agricultural reform, 49.4m USD for irrigation and drainage,
50m USD for modernization of road network and 28m USD for energy efficiency.
According to his words, the sixth project for improvement of services at local level, worth 46.4m USD, was signed in March 2008 and it needs to be sent to the Parliament for ratification. Grey said that the World Bank would invest 600m USD in Serbia, about 150m USD per year, between year 2008 and 2011.