Skopje, 24 November 2022 (MIA) - We see certain cases when we do have very good and strong teams implementing projects and, on some cases, we unfortunately still face some delays, delays due to the slowdown process of tendering, procurement, or tender documents preparation, or in the procurement phase which we have an example unfortunately like waste water treatment plant in the City of Skopje, and also to provide additional advice and additional training for the staff. We expect the government of North Macedonia to invest in setting up strong teams in place which are key for the successful implementation of the projects, Lilyana Pavlova, Vice-President of the European Investment Bank (EIB) said in an interview with MIA. We spoke with Pavlova on yesterday’s signing the €50 million loan with EIB intended for water and wastewater infrastructure in the municipalities of North Macedonia. According to Pavlova, it is a very important investment we are doing with the government and under the leadership of the Ministry of Environment, together with the municipalities of course, to invest and deliver infrastructure important for improving the lives of the citizens of the municipalities of North Macedonia as well as providing better quality, better access to water and clean water infrastructure. She said that next year key priority will be in supporting the government in realization of the recently announced energy support package by EC President Ursula von der Leyen for the region in amount of €1 billion package of support for overcoming the energy crisis. “We are happy now to provide advice to the government in preparing just transition action plan in order to make sure that there is not only the right strategy in place but also to prepare and to build good and pipeline of mature projects, of implantable projects in order to be able to disburse this allocation which is dedicated for North Macedonia,” she noted. In the interview she announced signing of a €100 million loan in the next couple of weeks, which is targeted for supporting small and medium enterprises in two dimensions and support the government program of support in overcoming of the negative impact of the Russia’s aggressive war in Ukraine and the negative impact on the economy, on the energy sector. “Support for the private sector, support of SMEs, is of extreme importance for us. This way, we are giving some kind of liquidity support to the government in these difficult times ahead of the winter and for the economy as such,” Pavlova said. The EIB has approved a new loan for the country to improve its water infrastructure. What are the terms of the loan and what would it mean for citizens? I’m glad to be here for the third time in just a couple of months and signing today the €50 million loan for water and wastewater infrastructure in 80 municipalities of North Macedonia. It is a very important investment we are doing with the government and under the leadership of the Ministry of Environment, together with the municipalities of course, to invest and deliver infrastructure important for improving the lives of the citizens of the municipalities of North Macedonia as well as providing better quality, better access to water and clean water infrastructure. This is part of the overall investments we are having as part of the EU climate bank. It is EU’s support for more climate action-related investments and environmental sustainability. This could also be considered as support for the further implementation of the EU directives and EU legislation. Because the EU perspective is also about delivering specific projects, which are for the benefit of the citizens. On top of the €50 million loan provided to the government and the Ministry of Finance as well, we signed today a special technical assistance contract, which is provided by the EIB to the Ministry of Environment, in order to support the capacity for the implementation of this project – both the capacity of the Ministry as the national coordinator of this water framework as well as to support the capacities of the municipalities to help them implement specific projects on the ground. Amid the energy crisis, when the state is struggling to finance the national budget, how much can it afford to finance such projects and what is EIB’s role in this? We are really active in the region for many years now. Specifically, in North Macedonia so far, we have provided more than one billion of euros of investments in a wide variety of sectors. Only this year, in the past couple of months, we have co-financed specific projects in the amount of €200 million. Our complementarity of our financing — because we are an EU bank, but we are a bank and these are loans — is indeed to complement the strong EU grant support, which is provided to the country for the different facilities: IPA, the Western Balkans Investment Framework, the Economic Investment Plan for the Western Balkans. So as part of the Team Europe and the Team Europe approach we are recently applying, we can reinforce different facilities. For us, as an EU bank, we can provide our loans at very good conditions for the state and the government, being careful in support of the government not to increase the level of indebtedness to an extreme, extreme situation [considering] the situation with the current inflation peak and increasing prices. For example, we are in the final process and hopefully in the next couple of weeks we will be able to sign a €100 million loan with the national Development Bank of North Macedonia, which is targeted for supporting small and medium enterprises in two dimensions. One important dimension is to support the government program of support in overcoming of the negative impact of the Russia’s aggressive war in Ukraine and the negative impact on the economy, on the energy sector. For these investments as well, we have a specific component, like more than 30 percent of the projects ought to be dedicated to sustainability, to climate action and adaptation, because it is a combination of factors. So, support for the private sector, support of SMEs, is of extreme importance for us. This way, we are giving some kind of liquidity support to the government in these difficult times ahead of the winter and for the economy as such. As a supporter of many projects in the country, you are analyzing the progress of their implementation. What is your assessment of our capacity to implement projects in a timely manner and to utilize the funds we receive? What I could say that we have a very good cooperation with the Government, which was further strengthened in the past months and the last year. And we are strongly committed to support the government in implementing different programmes, projects or initiatives in support of continuing in delivering and building the important strategic infrastructure - road infrastructure, rail infrastructure, environmental infrastructure, like the example the signed water and wastewater infrastructure loan, as well as providing targeted support for technical and financial advisory which we are providing for different instruments. In order on the one side to build the right capacity of the line ministries and promoters in order to be successful in implementation as well as our support for project preparation, project design, development of tender documents, creating and establishing project implementation unit, knowledge sharing. This is another important element, because despite the strong commitment of the government to implement and to deliver projects which they are working hard, they still need some support in accelerating the implementation of some strategic projects. And that is why we are there to provide this technical assistances and advisory support for them in order to make sure that once the right teams are in place there is a continuity, and we can insure that for the next projects in the pipeline we will have this capacity built in the line ministries. What should we pay the most attention to for the timely realization of the projects and the utilization of all the funds we receive? Indeed, it is important not only to sign the specific contracts and commitments, but also to be successful in disbursement, in delivering and successful implementation of the project. We see certain cases when we do have very good and strong teams implementing projects and, on some cases, we unfortunately still face some delays, delays due to the slowdown process of tendering, procurement, or tender documents preparation, or in the procurement phase which we have an example unfortunately like waste water treatment plant in the City of Skopje and some rail projects, where we are now trying on the top of our support which was provided for project preparation, for tender documents preparation, also to provide additional advice and additional training for the staff and of course we expect the government of North Macedonia to invest in setting up strong teams in place which are key for the successful implementation of the projects. Looking in the perspective of next year, our key priority will be in supporting the government in realization of the recently announced energy support package by EC President Ursula von der Leyen for the region in amount of €1 billion package of support for overcoming the energy crisis. We are happy now to provide advice to the government in preparing just transition action plan in order to make sure that there is not only the right strategy in place but also to prepare and to build good and pipeline of mature projects, of implantable projects in order to be able to disburse this allocation which is dedicated for North Macedonia. Lidija Velkovska Photo: Darko Popov Video: Srgjan Krstikj