$126m Loans From EIB to Fund Electric Water Projects

Jordan along with the European Investment Bank (EIB) on Sunday signed two loan agreements
worth $126 million to finance electricity and water projects.
Also on Sunday, Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour met with EIB Vice President Dario Scannapieco
and expressed Jordan's appreciation for the financial and technical assistance the lender provides to
the Kingdom, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.
The help has empowered the government to finance some development projects in the infrastructure
and water sectors, such as the Amman ring road project as well as the Disi Water Conveyance
Project, Ensour noted.
Scannapieco, who is on his first official visit to the Kingdom, stressed the EIB's support for Jordan's
development efforts and its own preparedness to fund the execution of high-priority jobs, based on
Petra.
Planning and International Cooperation Minister Imad Fakhoury and Scannapieco signed the very
first loan agreement, value $72 million, that will finance the National Electric Power Company's
(NEPCO) Green Corridor project, a ministry statement said.
The project is a top priority scheme within NEPCO's strategies in electrical conveyance directed at
enhancing the efficiency of the national power system through building a substation in northern
Maan, extending power cables and enlarging the Qatraneh and Queen Alia International Airport
stations.
These measures are aimed at empowering the power system to adapt new power loads created from
renewable energy sources to reach the envisioned goal of the national strategy by increasing the
renewable energy contribution to the energy mix to 10 per cent by 2020, the ministry statement
said.
The total price of the undertaking is $159.7 million, the statement said, with the French
Development Agency (AFD) supplying a $54.9 million soft loan, NEPCO contributing $12.6 million, in
addition to an EU grant of $20.2 million offered under the Neighbourhood Investment Facility (NIF).
Additionally on Sunday, Fakhoury, Scannapieco along with other worried Jordanian officials signed a
$54 million worth understanding associated with the Wadi Al Arab Water System II, the ministry
statement included.
The overall expense of the project is $112 million, with all the AFD contributing to $43 million
through a soft loan as well as the EU NIF supplying $15 million, the ministry said, noting the EIB is
the leading financer of the endeavor.
The EIB's loan will help treat and carry 30 million cubic metres per year of fresh water from the
King Abdullah Canal in the northern Jordan Valley to the Zabda Reservoir which serves Irbid, some
80km north of Amman, in accordance with an EIB statement.
"Jordan attaches great value to the signing of both loan agreements," Fakhoury said in the signing
ceremony, noting that the undertakings are timely, addressing two priority sectors.

He thanked the EIB for its support.

"The EIB has significantly contributed [to] helping Jordan in its development efforts over the past
years via supporting key sectors like mining, industry, water, education, and energy in addition to
private sector operations. Jordan is discovered to further cooperate with the bank in the coming
period..." the minister added.