The ceremony of execution of the Loan Agreement and Guarantee Agreement between the representatives of the Government of the Republic of Croatia and the World Bank was held in Ploce on November 20th, which marks the formal start of the Transport and Trade Integration project with the emphasis on the projects of development of the Port of Ploce: the construction of Multipurpose/Container terminal and Terminal for dry bulk cargoes and the development of the Port Information System. The Loan Agreement was executed by the director of the World Bank for Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria, Mr. Anand Seth, and the director of the Port of Ploce Auhority Mr. Tomislav Batur, while the Guarantee Agreement was executed by Mr. Seth and the assistant of the Minister of Finance of the Republic of Croatia, Mrs. Ana Hrastovic.
The project will be funded out of the loan granted by the World Bank (IBRD) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), whereby the IBRD will play a leading role. The EBRD will co-finance one of the components of the Bulk Cargo Terminal; the execution of this Loan Agreement will take place in the course of next year. The aggregate loan amount represents € 70 Million, whereby € 58.8 Million under a loan from the World Bank and the balance thereof in the amount of € 11.2 Million under a loan from the EBRD. The share of the Croatian side (the Government of the Republic of Croatia) in funding the aggregate project costs represents 25%, which amounts to € 21 Million.
For the purpose of improving the performance of port operations, in addition to the construction of the said terminals it will also be necessary to develop the appropriate general infrastructure such as roads, railway tracks, power supply, dredging and port entrance facility.
It is important to mention that the terminals will be built in parallel with the construction of the motorway section to Ploce, whereby the stone material from the motorway will be used in the civil engineering interventions in the port.
Many activities aimed at the preparation of the extensive project documents are currently being finalized or in course, which was time-saving in the process of the negotiations of the terms of funding and implementation of the project.
During the study of all aspects of the project, special attention was paid to the position of the “Luka Ploce d.d.” company, the most important company in Ploce and in the wider community, which is now also the priority concessionaire for the transshipment and storage of cargo in the area of the ports of Ploce and Metkovic and which has been the pillar of the port operations and of the development of the port capacity for many years already. Therefore, “Luka Ploce d.d.” will also be the operator at the future terminals, whereby significant funds will be invested, for the first time in Croatian ports, on a public-private partnership basis in securing the required transshipment equipment.
In addition to the increase in the port capacity from the current 4.8 Million tons of annual traffic volumes to approximately 10.0 Million tons upon completion of this project, this project will also contribute to the development of the whole local community through the generation of added value in many sectors of activity and the creation of new jobs. This will make it possible for the port of Ploce to position itself as a medium-sized port according to European standards and to fully confirm its role of starting and ending point of the European route Vc; it will also bring economic benefits to the whole economy of the area gravitating to the port of Ploce, in particular to the economy of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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