The European investment bank(EIB) has signed today in Belgrade with the Serbian Minister of Finance Diana Dragutinovic and in the presence of the Minister of Education Zarko Obradovic a EUR 50 million financing loan aimed at supporting the School modernisation programme of the Country.
The European investment bank(EIB) has signed today in Belgrade with the Serbian Minister of Finance Diana Dragutinovic and in the presence of the Minister of Education Zarko Obradovic a EUR 50 million financing loan aimed at supporting the School modernisation programme of the Country.
The loan will cover about the 50 per cent of the total cost of the project that has two main objectives:
to improve the quality of learning conditions for students at all levels of pre-university education;
to reach a more efficient allocation and investment in physical infrastructure in the education sector all over the Country.
This operation represents a continuation of EIB's support to Serbia’s primary and secondary education sector, following the succesful implementation of the first EIB EUR 25 million loan extended in 2005 and is fully in line with the EIB's lending priorities for the strengthening and development of activities in support of the Candidate and Potential Candidate Countries.
This is the second relevant loan financing supported by the EIB in Serbia in educational and Research and Development (R&D) sector after the EUR 200 million operation in favour of public R&D signed on 4th March 2010.
“I am really satisfied for this operation in the educational sector: the EIB is following closely investments in human capital in Serbia”, noted Dario Scannapieco, the EIB Vice-president responsible for operations in Italy, Malta and the Western Balkans, “together with the loan signed last March on supporting public Research and Development Center. We appreciate the efforts made by the Serbian government to invest in the building of its human capital. These are projects with a long-lasting payout from which Serbia's competitiveness will strongly profit”.