OREANDA-NEWS. During the visit, Dmitry Pankin met with Prime Minister of Armenia Ovik Abraamyan and Minister of Finance Gagik Khachatryan. The parties discussed the interim results of EDB's work in Armenia and key areas for its future operations in the country.

The head of the Bank praised cooperation between EDB and Armenia. "EDB is ready to participate in the preparation and fulfilment of projects in the country and thereby to facilitate its economic growth," Dmitry Pankin said.

In particular, the EDB delegation, and the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Armenia discussed the current projects, including the finance for the project to modernise irrigation systems, the construction of the Mastara reservoir and the North-South road corridor (Phase 4), as well as a USD 300 million financial credit to Armenia.

The five-year project to modernise irrigation, with a total finance of US \\$50 million (US \\$40 million to be provided by the EFSD as a soft loan, and US \\$10 million to be co-financed by Armenia) is expected to start in 2016. Project preparation was funded from ECAPDEV grant.

As for the Mastara construction project, the Armenian side requested EDB to assist in finding pre-project finance. The application was made to ECAPDEV. It was preliminarily approved and the final decision is expected to be made soon. The grant will be used to prepare the feasibility study and the investment credit application to the EFSD.

Last week, the agreement on a USD 150 million investment credit for the construction of the North-South road corridor (Phase 4) took effect. The preparation of tender documents to select a contractor and a project supervision advisor is to begin very soon. The contractor and the advisor will be selected using international bidding procedures. Construction is planned to start in 2016. The delegation also discussed finance for the next phase of the North-South road corridor project. EDB is ready to begin to finalise the preliminary application in cooperation with Armenia.

According to the Armenian Ministry of Transport and Communications, the preliminary application, as well as the project blueprint and feasibility study have been completed and wait for the government's approval.

In the final section of the meeting, the parties discussed the provision of a USD 300 million investment credit to Armenia. The credit was approved by the Expert Council of the EFSD and the respective documents were sent to the members of the Fund's Council for consideration in absentia. The signature process is supposed to be finalised in two weeks. The Resources Manager will begin to prepare its opinion on Armenia's fulfilment of the conditions of the first US \\$100 million tranche as soon as it receives the respective report from the Armenian Ministry of Finance.

The parties also discussed the provision of a USD 300 million financial credit to Armenia to support its three-year reform programme. The credit is currently being considered by the EFSD Council in absentia. If it is approved the first tranche of USD 100 million may be provided before the end of this year.