Bosnia’s Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Finance and Treasury, Zoran Tegeltija, signed three contracts on EU grants worth €43.8 million with the Director of the Office of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in BiH, Manuela Naessl.

By signing these contracts, grants from European Union (EU) funds were provided as financial support for works on the sections of the Corridor 5C highway, namely: Rudanka loop – Putnikovo brdo tunnel and Putnikovo brdo tunnel – Medakovo loop.

In addition, a grant agreement was signed by which the EU provides financial support for the water supply project in Visoko.

“Today we signed a contract worth €42.8 million in grant funds for the construction of two sections of Corridor 5C, one in the Republika Srpska (RS) and one in the Federation of BiH (FBiH). The grant funds follow the loan agreement that BiH signed with the EBRD. The total value of the loan funds is €210 million, these €42.8 million are divided into €30.8 million for the share in the RS and €12 million for the share in FBiH”, Tegeltija said.

Speaking about the project in Visoko, he said that the €4.5 million provided for Visoko will be accompanied by a grant of €1 million and will solve the problem of water supply for some 4,000 inhabitants of this town.

Johann Sattler, the EU Ambassador to BiH, said that Corridor 5C is the most important corridor in BiH, perhaps even in and in the history of BiH. He noted that they are satisfied with the acceleration of the dynamics of the project's implementation, because now they are working on much longer sections than before, as well as because of the increase in the grant that is given along with the loan funds.