European Investment Bank could provide a 320 mln euro loan to Development Bank of KazakhstanThe European Investment Bank (EIB) may provide a 320 million euro loan facility to Development Bank of Kazakhstan JSC (DBK), DBK said in a press release on Tuesday.“We have reached agreement with EIB about a possibility of providing a loan facility to DBK for a total amount of up to 320 million euros. These funds could be used to finance projects in various sectors of the economy, including development of transport infrastructure between Europe and Central Asia. Such cooperation would give fresh impetus to trade relations between the global regions,” DBK Deputy CEO Botagoz Abisheva is quoted as saying.DBK and EIB also signed a memorandum of understanding for EIB to be able to support projects in Central Asia that would improve the region’s transport connectivity with Europe. The next step could be the signing of an agreement on EIB’s financing of investment projects in Kazakhstan, according to the press release.The memorandum was sealed on the sidelines of the Global Gateway Investors Forum for EU-Central Asia Transport Connectivity, which takes place in Brussels on January 29-30.European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said at the forum on Monday that European and international financial institutions will allocate 10 billion euros for investing in a transport corridor between Europe and Central Asia.The participants in the two-day forum are discussing the required amount of investments to transform the Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor into a modern, multimodal and efficient route, connecting Europe with Central Asia via the Black Sea and the South Caucasus within 15 days.The discussion is based on the study on sustainable transport connections between Europe and Central Asia, conducted by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for the European Commission in the summer of 2023. It identified 33 priority goals in physical infrastructure and seven key connectivity actions, the implementation of which will boost the efficiency and the economic appeal of the Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor. They were presented at the EU-Central Asia Economic Forum, held in Almaty in May 2023.The Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR) is an international transport corridor that runs through China, Kazakhstan, the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and further to Turkey and European countries. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is part of the corridor.In 2022, the cargo transportation volume via TITR totaled 33,600 containers or 1.5 million tonnes, which is an increase of 150% from 2021. Transportation through TITR is expected to increase by 17.6% in 2023 to 2 million tonnes. The throughput capacity of TITRS is anticipated to reach 10 million tonnes of cargoes a year by 2025. (ICE ALMATY)

Fonte notizia: INTERFAX