MINSK, June 24, 2013 – The Republic of Belarus and the World Bank signed the Loan Agreement for a USD90 million additional financing for an Energy Efficiency Project, following the loan’s approval by the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors on June 6, 2013. The Loan Agreement was signed by Mr. Victor V. Nazarenko, Chairman of State Committee for Standardization of the Republic of Belarus, and Mr. Qimiao Fan, World Bank Regional Director for Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine.
The additional financing will bring direct benefits to 120,000 people and will help to address climate change challenges; the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions per year is estimated at about 250,000 tons. It will provide for more improvements in heat and power generation similar to those being implemented under the original USD125 million loan which was approved in 2009.
The additional loan will finance reconstruction of two combined heat and power plants in the cities of Gomel and Mogilev operating with old gas-fired steam boilers to combined cycle gas turbine heat and power plants. As a result of the original loan and the additional financing, about 145 megawatts of additional electric capacity based on modern gas turbines and engines are being installed. The efficiency of heat and power generation at the project sites will be increased by 15 to 30 percent.
The current World Bank investment lending portfolio in Belarus includes 5 operations for a total amount of USD547.5 million. Since Belarus joined the World Bank in 1992, commitments to the country have totaled USD955 million for 13 loans. In addition, grant financing totaling USD23.7 million has been provided to about 30 programs including those with civil society organizations.
