World Bank has announced that it would give the Western Balkan countries $150 million to improve the efficiency of the main traffic corridors and to expand trade links.
The Trade and Transport Facilitation Project is designed to streamline border crossings, improve the efficiency of logistics services and deploy modern ‘intelligent’ technologies to improve freight and passenger transport and get goods to customers faster.
“Citizens of the Western Balkans countries will see transportation costs reduced and trade expanded under the $150 million Trade and Transport Facilitation Project,” said Kristalina Georgieva, the CEO of World Bank. “We estimate the benefits to be in the order of $1 billion per year – an important contribution to regional efforts to boost growth and create jobs and opportunities for more people”, she added.
To achieve higher economic growth will take stronger economic integration within the region and further business climate improvements to boost private sector investment and create private sector jobs.
“It is important for Western Balkans leaders to come together to advance economic cooperation across borders, in transport, trade, and connectivity, which will promote business growth,” said Georgieva. “We are committed to supporting each country to achieve its objectives – while also connecting the region to the wider EU and global markets.”
The World Bank is already investing to improve transportation connections across the Balkans. It is working to close some of the gaps along Corridors 8 in Macedonia and 10 in Serbia. It is expected that improvements to Corridor 8 will cut travel time for trucks from Sofia to Skopje from 6 hours to three and a half hours.
(N1, World Bank, 07.12.2017)
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