Epress.am News from Armenia
Armenia’s Minister of Finance Vache Gabrielyan and World Bank Country Manager for Armenia Jean-Michel Happi as part of the Third Development Policy Operation (DPO) for Armenia signed financing and loan agreements valued at a total of $80 million USD, reports the Finance Ministry’s information and public relations department.
The Third DPO includes an IDA (International Development Association) credit equivalent of $50 million and an IBRD (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) loan of $30 million. The IDA credit carries a maturity of 25 years including a grace period of 5 years (with an annual interest rate of 1.25%) and the IBRD loan has a maturity of 25 years including 10 year grace period.
According to the press release issued by the World Bank, “the financing is designed to help Armenia to protect its poorest children, women and men, support greater human capital development, and reinforce competitiveness by providing a more favorable private sector environment and strengthening governance.”
“This Operation completes the programmatic series that started in 2009 and was central to the Bank’s on-going Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) for Armenia as it has supported the key elements of the Government’s overall reform program for sustaining the economic recovery and safeguarding the poor and vulnerable,” says Asad Alam, World Bank Regional Director for the South Caucasus Countries.