Transports: 90 mn World Bank project for efficiency Balkans
Part of a wider 140-million dollar initiative
19 April, 13:44"The project will finance the design, development, and implementation of initiatives to improve transparency, lower transaction costs, enhance inter-agency coordination, and reduce the time it takes to trade across borders," the Bank informed.
"Delays at crossings in the Western Balkans are five times longer than in many EU countries and trucks spend some 26 million hours at crossings in the region each year - that's nearly 3,000 years," said Linda Van Gelder, World Bank Regional Director for the Western Balkans.
The project will focus in particular on Serbia (40 million), North Macedonia (30) and Albania (10), with the aim of reducing annual export and import costs by more than 10 percent and greenhouse emissions.
Excessive time spent at the borders "dampens efficiency, increases costs, and hinders trade," the World Bank stressed.
(ANSA).