The European Investment Bank (EIB) is providing two loans in Moldova:

• EUR 75 million to finance the increase of the quality (not the capacity) of the Moldovan wine industry and
• EUR 75 million to support the rehabilitation and upgrade of priority roads in Moldova

Eva Srejber, EIB Vice-President responsible for financing operations in the Eastern Neighbour countries including Moldova, who signed the loan contract with Mr. Vladimir Filat, commented: “EIB funds will help to increase the competitiveness of Moldova in several ways: through improving the performance and export possibilities of the key sector of the Moldova’s economy, the wine industry, and the rehabilitation, capacity and safety increase of the key roads in the country.”

The first loan of will address the structural weaknesses of the Moldovan wine industry, from vineyard to final packaging and dispatch of wine. This loan will finance projects of small and medium sized enterprises that are active in this sector, including local growers, winemakers and associated industries such as bottle production. The EIB funds will be exclusively available for investments related to the production of bottled quality wines of "Protected Designation of Origin" or “Protected Geographical Indication and will not to be used for any expansion of the Moldova’s wine growing area. This project will be implemented between the beginning of 2011 and the end of 2014.

The other loan is focused on the rehabilitation and upgrade of road sections between Chisinau – Orhei – Sarateni – Balti, the Chisinau - Calarasi – Ungheni – Sculeni and the Comrat - Ciumai. These road sections represent the Moldova’s Government’s priorities for the road sector. This project is co-financed with a loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and grants from the European Commission through the Neighbourhood Investment Facility and it will be implemented from 2011 to 2013.

Background:

The EIB started to finance projects in Moldova in 2007, after getting the EU political go ahead at the end of October 2006. Including the current loans, the Bank’s commitments in Moldova total EUR 215 million so far, following the four previous EIB loans in this country for the rehabilitation of roads linking Chisinau with the Romanian border (EUR 30 million), the rehabilitation and capacity increase of Chisinau airport (EUR 20 million), the rehabilitation and extension of water supply and sanitation systems (EUR 10 million) and EUR 5 million to improve public transport in Moldova’s Capital Chisinau.

Under the current mandate, the EIB can lend up to EUR 3.7 billion to projects in Russia, Eastern European and Southern Caucasus countries within the period 2007 - 2013. In this context, the EIB is prepared to consider support to sound projects in the areas of transport, energy, telecommunications and environmental infrastructure, as well as for lending via banks  to SMEs.

To complement the mandate, EIB has set up the Eastern Partners Facility (EPF) at its own risk for an amount of EUR 1.5 billion, with EUR 500 million ceiling for projects in Russia. This facility enables the Bank to support investment grade projects, notably EU Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in the region.