Nikoloski: Our insistence is the payment of funds for project projects with the United Kingdom to be after completion

The conditions for return and interest rates on the funds under the Strategic Partnership Agreement with the United Kingdom will be better than any borrowing so far. Financing will be tied to the project. In some projects the maturity will be shorter, some will be longer, depends on the fitness of the Macedonian economy and budget, but also on the realization of the projects, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport Aleksandar Nikoloski informed, after today at a Government session to sign the Agreement in London.

Of the total six billion euros announced, the financial framework for the initially planned projects in the railway infrastructure and for health and education facilities is 2.1 to 2.2 million euros, and according to Nikoloski, the Macedonian side insists the funds be returned after the projects are completed.

– The funds are available for an unlimited time, the initial length of the Government agreement with the Government is 10 years with the opportunity to continue. Ten years to start a project, not to finish, but if both sides agree, I see no reason why they would not be in good relations with the United Kingdom, to continue. At orientation prices, the construction of the Tabanovce to Gevgelija railroad should cost about a billion and 900 million euros to two billion euros while the construction of the Clinical Hospital, the Faculty of Medicine and the Stip Dormitory, the complete reconstruction of the Klinic Hospital in Tetovo and a new house. We’re talking about a frame of 2.1 to 2.2 billion euros that would start starting. Our insistence is to start returning after the projects, ie the folk -speaking, have the grace period to the period of completion of the projects. If we need five years to complete the project and the Grace period to be five years, and when we put it into operation then we start returning the installments-Nikoloski explained at a press conference after the government adopted the text of the agreement.

In terms of camps, he said « Initially we can move under the inflation rate », but the details will be told for a month and a half.

According to Nikoloski, the maturity of return is crucial. – Citizens want, AI we, to complete the projects faster. One thing is to put the contractor in a comfortable position when he wants to finish the project and to pay as a state, and the other is to tell how much he must finish, and the loan starts to repay after it is completed. Then besides us, there will be pressure from the one who finances the project because it is with the funds. I am convinced that the projects will end in time or prematurely because of this component – Nikoloski said.

Asked by a journalist, he noted that the whole process is being kept maximally transparent, as he said, unlike previous projects in the country, we do nothing and declare a state secret.

– We go on a state -of -the -art school, ie by a book. To implement a project you must first provide funding, and in order to provide funding you must provide a legal framework. Taught by mistakes in the past we decided to go school and lead us more experienced than us. In this regard, this step we took today to the Government will result in the signing of the agreement, and then ratified in the Parliament, is to provide the legal framework, and on the basis of it we will then talk about financing and after we finish we will talk about the performance – Nikoloski said.

He pointed out that mistakes were made in the past, which cited the Kicevo-Ohrid highway projects and Corridor 8 and 10D highways.

-The Kicevo-Ohrid highway where there is a loan that is not bound by the completion of the project and the state returns money for a project that is not completed, which makes no sense. The idea of ​​project funding is to start returning from the moment when the project starts to bring you economic or other benefits. The second example is with the construction of Corridors 8 and 10D, where no financing is provided. Theoretically, if the budget in Macedonia has no money next year, nothing will work, but it will certainly not happen – Nikoloski said.

For the agreement with the UK, the four necessary steps, as he emphasized, is completed – we have projects, now we are going to the second step in Thursday to sign the contract, and then to the fastest possible to ratify it, and then we go on funding.

– It’s no secret that we already have initial conversations, but in order to be able to finish them legally, we must first have the Government agreement with the Government. Based on what we have discussed so far, it will not be a fixed funding, but the funding will be tied to the project. In some projects the maturity will be shorter, some will be longer, it will depend on the fitness of the Macedonian economy and budget, but also on the realization of projects. We have been guided by the interests of the state and in that direction two things are confident, as much as we provide at the moment no international financial institution is unable to offer Macedonia in general, and the conditions for return and interest rates will be better than anything that Macedonia borrowed earlier – Deputy Prime Minister Nikoloski said.

Despite borrowing from Hungary, which was for liquidity and projects, he said it would now be for projects only. « Always project funding is cheaper than financing for liquidity, » said Deputy Prime Minister Nikoloski.

Deputy Prime Minister Izet Medziti, Minister of Education Vesna Janevska and MZ Infrastructure Director Sinisa Ivanovski will also attend the ceremony in London.

The government delegation in London will meet with both the Interior and Defense of the United Kingdom, as well as the leadership of Ryan Air, which, as Nikoloski said, is expected to emerge new flights to Skopje.