The European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Union's financing institution, is providing EUR 40 million for the development of the mobile telecommunications network in Slovenia. The loan to MOBITEL d.d., a Slovenian telecommunications company set up in 1991, will help double the network's capacity and to extend coverage to 96 percent of the population. The loan is being guaranteed by Bank Austria, Bankgesellschaft Berlin, Caisse Centrale des Caisses d'Epargne, Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, DGZ DekaBank Deutsche Kommunalbank, Dresdner Bank, Erste Bank der Österreichischen Sparkassen und KBC Bank N.V. In 1997, the EIB had provided a first loan of EUR 45 million to Mobitel d.d. for launching GSM services in the country.
Expanding the Slovene telecommunications services is crucial for economic development in the country and its integration into the European Union. The EIB, as the major provider of funds for transport and energy infrastructure in the central European countries, is also playing a key role for financing efficient telecommunications networks in the region, including links with the networks of the European Union.'
The present loan brings total EIB financing in Slovenia to EUR 550 million. Previous EIB loans contributed to the modernisation of the road, railway and telecommunications networks. Small- and medium-size (SME) have access to EIB funding under a global loan (credit line) to Bank Austria-Ljubljana.
From 1997 to January 2000, the EIB is to lend up to EUR 7 billion in the ten Central European countries which have applied for EU membership: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Romania and Bulgaria. Under special mandates, the EIB is also mandated to lend in Albania, Bosnia- Herzegovina and FYR of Macedonia. All EIB lending outside the EU takes place under special authorisations by the Bank's Board of Governors (the fifteen EU Finance Ministers).
1 Euro = 196.199 SIT, 0.656300 GBP, 1.03280 USD.