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Where Will the Foreign Loans Go?

02 February, 00:00

If we get them, of course The government has approved a bill, according to which foreign loans, borrowed by the state directly or under state guarantee, are not to exceed $2.558 billion in 1999.

It is planned to use $825.5 million of it to finance the state budget deficit and pay off the state foreign debt; $520 million to support the hryvnia; $713.24 million to finance investment and institutional projects; $500 million to purchase equipment, technologies, goods, and services at the expense of financial resources attracted through international agreements.

Ukrainian Minister of Finance Ihor Mitiukov said Ukraine is to receive $520 million from the IMF through the EFF program; $458.2 million to launch 13 investment projects in cooperation with the World Bank, $148.72 million from the EBRD to launch eight joint projects, $180 million from the European Union, $80 million from the Japanese government, and $102.7 million from foreign credit markets.

Meanwhile some projects are assuming more concrete form. February 1 was the deadline for announcing end-use borrowers from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to construct an oil terminal in the Pivdenny port near Odesa and the Odesa - Brody oil pipeline as well as to install one million gas meters in Dnipropetrovsk oblast. The government has ordered the relevant ministries and departments to determine such borrowers, Interfax reports.

By yesterday the Energy Ministry was to transfer to the World Bank a report on the audit of the Ukrenerho Energy Company and on further implementation of the plan to rehabilitate hydroelectric power stations. This will make it possible to negotiate with the World Bank on resuming cooperation within the framework of its credit line targeted at Ukrainian energy market development. Moreover, to meet requirements for the second World Bank installment for financial sector reconstruction (totaling $110 million), the Ministry of Finance should secure payoff and service of debts to former state banks, while the State Property Fund is to sell state-owned securities in the statutory funds of Prominvestbank and Ukrsotsbank.

In order to attract the second installment from the World Bank for enterprise development (totaling $200 million) the SPF is to complete individual preparation programs for privatization of three enterprises and also secure establishment of legal base to regulate paperless (electronic) forms of stock trading of initial offerings on the market.

Newspaper output №:

№4, (1999)

Section

Economy