Talks on credit agreement on the project of reconstruction of Yevlax- Gandja and Gazax Georgian border highways between Azerbaijan government and Asian Development Bank have ended, ADB representative in Baku Matthew Westfall told Trend. Documents of agreement would be presented to the government by the end of this week. This will be followed after the signing of the agreement. There were some corrections on the status of the rate, whether it will be floating or fixed, Westfall said.
Government is doing final preparations to transfer the authority of signing of the documents to Transport Minister Ziya Mammedov.
Two credits will be received by the government from ADB one for the road reconstruction and another for border service components financing. The former credit was allocated by ADB from ordinary credit resources (24 year term with 4 year beneficial period and Libor +0.08% annual rate) and the latter is a beneficial credit of $3mln from the Asian development fund for 32 year term with 8 year beneficial period with 1% rate during the beneficial period and 1.5% for the remaining time.
ADB credit makes up 55.8% of the total project value in $93,2mln. The rest of the finances will be provided by the Islam Development Bank ($10.4mln), Saudi Development Fund ($11mln) and Azerbaijan government ($19.8mln). Department for the road transport service will serve as an executive component for the project on roads reconstruction and institutional strengthening, whereas State Customs Commission as a component on border services. The project will be terminated in 2010.
West- east is an important road in Azerbaijan for international trade. It is also a part of Asian highway network connecting Black and Caspian seas.