Office for South East Europe European Commission / World Bank

Regional Infrastructure Projects - Status as of May 2004

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The attached tables provide an overview of the ongoing regional infrastructure projects which are being monitored by the Infrastructure Steering Group (ISG). Since the last report, issued in May 2003, there has been significant progress, with seven projects reported by lead agencies to have been completed. These projects have been removed from the list, but details can still be consulted on the ISG regional infrastructure projects website (http://www.seerecon.org/infrastructure/projects/index.html). In addition, at the May 2004 ISG meeting, lead agencies submitted and agreed to add 5 new regional infrastructure projects to the list, with a total cost of approximately €610 million, covering the road and energy sectors.

Following these changes, and without counting the projects that have been removed, the current list comprises some 51 projects, with a total cost of €4.1 billion (see attachment)¹. These 51 projects have financing secured or under preparation with the involvement of bilateral donors or international financial institutions, and were selected according to the agreed criteria of: technical, economical and environmental feasibility; submission by two or more countries of the region; and a marked regional character.

The breakdown of the 51 projects totaling €4.1 bn is as follows:

Albania = €546 mn, BiH = €330 mn, Bulgaria = €816mn, Croatia = €414 mn, fYR Macedonia = €141 mn, Romania = €841 mn, Serbia and Montenegro €864 mn, Kosovo (Serbia and Montenegro) = €1.27 mn, Moldova = €33 mn, Regional Projects = €160 mn.

The selection of projects by the Infrastructure Steering Group is an ongoing process. There may be projects currently on the list which do not materialize and others which will appear on the list at a later date. Inclusion of new projects on the list will reflect progress made in securing financing for infrastructure projects promoting regional objectives in the transport, energy and environmental sector and meeting the agreed criteria of technical, economical and environmental feasibility.

A breakdown by sector (see attachment) shows that the most heavily invested sector is transport (particularly road infrastructure) which represents 68% of the overall cost, equivalent to some €2.8 billion, and spread between 34 different projects. The energy sector comes second, with a cost of €0.85 billion (20%) for seven electricity projects, and the water and environment sector comes last with four projects and a total cost of €0.32 billion (8%). A further 3 % of the projects are cross-border or trade facilitation projects for a total cost of euro €0.14 billion or 6 projects.

According to latest reporting by lead agencies, substantial progress has been made in getting projects started. The number of projects expected to have started by the end of May 2004 amounts to 39 projects or €3.45 billion of investments (83% of the total financing). A further 7 projects are expected to start before the end of 2005.

Attachment:

Projects Summary and the List of Regional Infrastructure Projects (8 pages, pdf, 98 KB)

¹ The list of projects has mainly been established by merging and consolidating the list of Quick Start infrastructure projects agreed at the Regional Funding Conference held in Brussels in March 2000 in support of the Stability Pact, and the list of regional infrastructure projects presented by the Chairman of the Infrastructure Steering Group at the second Regional Conference held in Bucharest in October 2001. Following the ISG meeting of November 21, 2002 five new projects were included on the list (Project numbers: 411014, 413003, 514001, 714009, 721004). Two further projects have been included in November 2003 (Project numbers 111014 and 413001), and following the ISG meeting of May 2004, another 5 projects were added (Project numbers: 121010, 311003, 311004, 711028, 821001). At the same meeting, seven projects were removed from the list of ongoing projects because they had been completed (Project numbers: 211008, 411001, 414003, 432004, 511002, 711018, 811001)