BUSINESS NEWS
EU bank promotes SA development
Posted Wed, 17 Jan 2007
The European Investment Bank on Tuesday announced a R8.5-billion loan to South Africa to promote development. "The use of the R8.5-billion will be focused on infrastructure projects of public interest, for example power, water supply, sewerage, communications and support to private sector investment," said David White, the EIB's head of regional representation for Southern Africa. The loan will cover the period 2007 to 2013. Between 1995 and 2006, the EIB lent South Africa about R14.3-billion. About R760-million of the current loan will be used by Eskom to strengthen its power transmission between Gauteng and the Western Cape. This, said White, had shot to the top of the priority list given problems in 2006 at the Western Cape's Koeberg nuclear power station. White said the EIB's loan was part of Europe's recognition that South Africa had a "serious backlog" in the provision of urgently required infrastructure. White stressed that the EIB was "not just here for
South Africa", but supported investment in other countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. He said the bank was particularly interested in larger-scale private investments in technology which would help the country integrate into the world economy. Infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa desperately needed to be improved to promote the development of a regional economy. On the repayment terms for the loans, White said that since the EIB was an AAA-accredited institution, it could borrow at the lowest rates and longest repayment terms. The European Union's ambassador to South Africa Lodewyk Briët said: "Our overall objectives in South Africa continue to be poverty alleviation and bringing the second economy into the first." He said the council of the EU was reducing its role in the projects for which the EIB provided loans. The EIB is the EU's investment bank. The bulk of its financing in South Africa to date had been in infrastructure.
This includes the N4 West Platinum highway toll road, gas transport from Mozambique to South Africa and the construction of the Berg Water dam to supply water to Cape Town.
Sapa
| 
