The European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Union's financing institution, is providing ECU 65 million (1) for the development of the second mobile telecommunications network in the Slovak Republic. The loan to GLOBTEL GSM a.s., a Slovak telecommunications company set up last year, will help finance the installation of two switching centres, some 500 base stations, as well as 19 control stations with buildings, power supply equipment, antennas and microwave radio links.
An international syndicate arranged by ING Bank NV and composed of nine other major European and Japanese banks (2) has agreed to guarantee the loan.
This loan is an additional example of EIB's strong involvement in the region's telecommunication sector which is crucial for its economic development. The EIB supports investment in both fixed and mobile network in all these countries, linking their networks with the one of the EU. This is part of the key role of the EIB in the development of TENs, which focuses also on transport and energy infrastructure, for which the EIB is the major provider of funds for transport and energy infrastructure in the central and eastern European countries.
The present loan brings total EIB financing in Slovakia to ECU 543 million. Previous EIB loans mainly contributed to the modernisation of the road and telephone networks, for gas storage facilities as well as for the air-traffic control system. A number of small and medium-scale industrial and tourism ventures were also financed through an EIB global loan made available to the Slovak banking network.
The EIB finances projects in Slovakia under mandates by its Board of Governors, i.e. the fifteen EU Ministers of Finance representing the Bank's shareholders. For the period 1997-99 loans up to ECU 3.5 billion are available for projects in Albania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. In addition, the EIB will shortly launch a substantial 'Pre-Accession Facility' to help the countries in the region prepare for EU membership.
(1) The conversion rates used by the EIB for statistical purposes during the current quarter are those obtaining on 30 September 1997, when ECU 1 = GBP 0.69, IEP 0.76, USD 1.113, SKK 37.6918.
(2) Banque Nationale de Paris, Bayerische Vereinsbank, Berliner Bank, Creditanstalt Bankverein, Crédit Local de France, Crédit Lyonnais, Erste Bank, ING Barings, Kredietbank, The Sumitomo Bank.