CYPRUS and the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) yesterday signed a loan agreement worth £58 million to cover half the cost for the extension of the existing sewerage system and treatment facilities in the Nicosia area.
The loan agreement was signed by Finance Minister Takis Klerides and Director General for Loans of the CEB Rainer Steckhan.
Klerides said that part of the remaining cost of the project, which would be concluded in seven years, would be financed by the European Investment Bank.
He added that a series of other projects were under examination with a view to submitting them to CEB, including the construction of school buildings, the new Famagusta and Nicosia hospitals, and sewerage systems in other areas.
“Cyprus joined the Bank after its independence in 1962 but it started borrowing substantial amounts from 1974, following the Turkish invasion on the island and its tragic aftermath”, Klerides said.
In his remarks after signing the loan agreement, Steckhan congratulated Cyprus for its “impressive economic growth rates”, and said that the 40 years of co-operation between Cyprus and the Bank had been “very constructive”.
Steckhan said the loans the Bank gave to Cyprus so far were almost exclusively in the social sector and added that the Bank “wants to stay with Cyprus” and continue its work on the island.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
