On 22 February, the First Committee of CEI National Coordinators meeting was held in Rome. At the meeting, the CEI National Coordinators approved four technical cooperation projects to be supported by the CEI Fund at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), financed by Italy (2018 budget).
Through its Technical Cooperation Programme, the Fund offers grant-type assistance in support of specific components of investments and operations of the EBRD. Technical Cooperation operations include support for feasibility and pre-feasibility studies, sector and environmental engineering, management training, capacity building, pre-loan audits.
The first project, of EUR 150,000, will target the SME development sector in Belarus and will last 36 months generating up to 18 million EUR of investments. The project aims at facilitating access to finance and promoting the sustainable growth of the SME sector.
The second project, of EUR 60,000, addresses the governance of public procurement as well as the capacity of human resources managing procurement with the overall objective of improving them. Through the CEI Fund resources, scholarships will be granted to procurement professionals from CEI member states.
The third project, of EUR 150,000, targets the development of renewable sources of energy in North Macedonia, particularly the wind power development. The CEI support will finance the technical assistance linked to an estimated EBRD investment amounting to 25 million EUR for the construction and operation of a wind farm in the southeast part of the country. The needed technical assistance will provide wind resource assessment, wind measurement as well as the project basic design and technical characteristic of the power plant.
The fourth project, of EUR 100,000, aims to support the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, in Serbia, in its wider efforts to increase the level of energy efficiency in the public infrastructure sector. The technical assistance financed by the CEI Fund will review the public property in the territory of the Province, estimate the energy efficiency potential and prioritise the investment requirements. In this respect, the bankable strategic investment programme in a long-term perspective of 10 years amounts to 10 million EUR.
Original source: CEI
Published on 27 February 2019
