A 50 million euro ($43 million) loan agreement was signed on Friday, November 23 between the European Investment Bank (EIB) and Cyprus to fund the building of the new Nicosia General Hospital.
The agreement was signed in Nicosia by the EIB's director Terence Brown and Cypriot Finance Minister Takis Klerides. The funds are provided under the bank's current 8.5 billion euro (7.4 billion dollars) pre-accession lending program which runs until 2003 aimed at supporting the integration of European Union candidates.
Brown suggested that additional funding in Cyprus would focus on technology and major infrastructure projects. It is the first EIB loan to an EU candidate country within the health sector. The EIB had already loaned to Cyprus a total of some 550 million euros ($482 million) to support projects in water supply, water treatment, industry, energy and transport infrastructure.
The Nicosia hospital loan is over 25 years with a four-year grace period. The 430-bed hospital, costing 93.5 million euros (82 million dollars), is expected to be built by July 2003.
Meanwhile, in the southern port city of Limassol, foreign ministers of the leading six countries for the first wave of EU enlargement urged the EU to speed up the process. The so-called Luxembourg Group told the EU to stick to its timetable of completing accession negotiations by the end of 2002 with membership earmarked for January 2004. Cyprus leads the pack in meeting those target dates.
A joint communique issued after the day-long summit called on the presidency and member states to adopt common positions and avoid linking negotiations with EU internal debates. The Luxembourg Group, in addition to Cyprus, includes the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia.— (AFP, Nicosia)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
