Office for South East Europe European Commission / World Bank

Regional Infrastructure Projects - Status as of November 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 2004, there has been continued progress, with four projects reported by lead agencies to have been completed. This brings the total number of projects completed to 11, with a total value of €431 million. 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). Lead agencies have also submitted 8 new regional infrastructure projects with a total cost of approximately €827 million, covering the road, cross border and energy sectors. These will be considered for inclusion in the list of regional infrastructure projects at the next meeting of the ISG.

Two projects have been suspended due in one case to revised design and cost increases and in the other case to a decision by the client government not to proceed with the project.

Following these changes, and without counting the projects that have been removed, the current list comprises some 45 projects, with a total cost of €3.96 billion (see attachment)¹. These 45 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 45 projects totaling €3.96 bn is as follows:

Albania = €508 mn, BiH = €290 mn, Bulgaria = €781mn, Croatia = €405 mn, fYR Macedonia = €133 mn, Romania = €829 mn, Serbia and Montenegro €851 mn, Kosovo (Serbia and Montenegro) = €1.18 mn, Moldova = €31.51 mn, Regional Projects = €133 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 €2.7billion, and spread between 28 different projects. These projects primarily support the development of the Core Transport Network, as agreed in the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Countries of the Region on June 11, 2004.

The energy sector comes second, with a cost of €0.79 billion (20%) for seven electricity projects which have been reviewed by the ISG. This does not represent a full overview of investments in support of the Energy Community of South East Europe. The Athens Process Secretariat maintains and develops a separate data set on donor activities in the energy sector, which is available on the seerecon website.

At this stage, only four projects in the water and environment sector, with a total cost of €0.32 billion (8%), are on the Regional Infrastructure Projects list. In view of the increased interest of the ISG in the environment sector, a comprehensive stocktaking exercise of regional initiatives and active projects (37 projects, with a total value of €853 million) has been undertaken by the Joint Office. This list will be reviewed at our next ISG meeting.

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 November 2004 amounts to 33 projects or €3.06 billion of investments (77% of the total financing). A further 9 projects are expected to start before the end of 2005 ( for a total value of €741.26 million).

Attachment:

Projects Summary and the List of Regional Infrastructure Projects (4 pages, pdf, 60 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)