Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will allocate a loan worth $34 million to Kazakhstan to improve energy efficiency and upgrade public utilities and transport in the Almaty city.

The loan provided by the EBRD for the benefit of the municipal communal enterprise Almaty Kala Zharyk, comprises two elements: $17 million from the EBRD's resources and $17 million provided by the Green Energy Special Fund, an EBRD-administered fund supported by international donors.

Technical cooperation grants will be also provided for a total amount of €780,000, of which €400,000 will come from the TaiwanBusiness-EBRD Cooperation Fund and €380,000 from the EBRD Shareholder Special Fund.

The project documents were signed in Almaty by EBRD President, Sir Suma Chakrabarti, Akim of Almaty Akhmetzhan Esimov, and Director of Almaty Kala Zharyk Baurzhan Ibrayev.

In his remarks Chakrabart said the modern energy-efficient lighting will result in significant energy savings for the Almaty city.

"We have already financed the purchase of 400 new environmentally friendly buses and almost 200 trolleybuses for the city and we will continue to support the modernization program in Almaty," he noted.

Esimov, in turn stressed this project will enable Almaty to begin important work to bring innovation and energy-efficient technologies into the street lighting system of the city.

Street lighting is responsible for fully 25 percent of the Akimat's current electricity consumption. The new energy-efficient technologies will allow the city to minimize electricity consumption (which will reduce CO₂ emissions) and reduce operating and maintenance costs.

Since the beginning of its operations in Kazakhstan, the EBRD has invested close to $6.5 billion in the country's economy.