World Bank Vows Support for Bulgarian Infrastructure

The World Bank will continue to support the development of Bulgaria's infrastructure, its Director for Central Europe and the Baltic countries, Peter Harrold, stated in Sofia Wednesday.

Harrold, who met with Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, has guaranteed that the International Financial Corporation, the member of the World Bank Group that finances and provides advice for private sector ventures and projects, will continue to support the country's green investments, as well as the investments in infrastructure, industry, agriculture and the social sector.

The World Bank is preparing a strategy for its partnership with Bulgaria in the period 2011-2015, it was made clear during the meeting. The strategy is expected to be discussed in May 2011 by the institution's board of financial directors.

" The new partnership strategy must help Bulgaria to achieve steady growth, focusing on reform policies and further developing the institutional capacity in certain sectors," Peter Harrold said.

Bulgaria has to make use of the existing EU financing, while the support from the World Bank will be technical and analytical, with additional financing if necessary, according to him.

"I am extremely satisfied by the cooperation between the Bulgarian government and the World Bank and I am sure it will continue. Thanks to our collaborative efforts, the Bulgarian citizens already see the materialization of projects, which have only been promised for the past 20 years," Boyko Borisov said.