The convention at work

European development fund

Following favourable opinions from the EDF Committee, the Commission has decided to provide grants and special loans from the 5th, 6th and 7th EDFs to finance the following operations:

Economic and social infrastructure

Nigeria: ECU 10.5m for a telecommunications maintenance training programme designed to improve NITEL's upkeep of its technical facilities.

Rwanda: ECU 9.92m to rehabilitate and extend drinking water supplies in East Bugesera, with a public distribution system catering for domestic needs and animals in Gashora and Kanzenze.

Burkina Faso: ECU 7.1m to supply electricity in three towns (Diebougou, Kongoussi and Nounao) as well as drinking water in Diebougou. The power supply should help to raise the standard of living. make small traders more dynamic and improve the efficiency of productive activities, such as market gardening.

Kenya: ECU 1.97m for the St AustinKabete road. The aim is to halt the deterioriation of the road so that traffic can continue unimpeded. This stretch of 7.5 km, to the west of Nairobi on the Northern Corridor, links up with two other road projects recently financed by the EC-the Westlands-St Austin and Kabete-Limuru sections.

Trade promotion / structural adjustment

Trinidad and Tobago: ECU 9.7m to support the structural adjustment programme and implement a general import programme. The structural adjustment programme which the Government has been undertaking since 1983 was stepped up with the change of government in 1987. The new administration which took over in December 1991 is continuing with the economic reforms.

Tanzania: ECU 55 million as specific resources for structural adjustment.

All ACPs: ECU 40 million (global commitment authorisation) to finance, using the expedited procedure, technical cooperation operations and schemes to develop trade and services, including tourism, in the ACPs and OCTs.

Enterprise

Jamaica: ECU 7 million (ECU 6.1 million in loans and ECU 900,000 in grants) for a credit programme for small and micro-businesses, to cover 9% of the annual demand in this sector. This will help to boost the volume and accessibility of credit.

Guyana: ECU 250 000 to develop credit facilities for SMEs.

Health

Namibia: ECU 13.5m for an integrated health programme to improve the management of the financial and administrative infrastructure and run health projects in each of the country's four regions.

Senegal: ECU 1.7m to support the second phase of the national AIDS control campaign.

Uganda: ECU 20m for a health programme.

Institutional support

Portuguese-speaking countries of Africa (Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe: ECU 3.5m to train some 900 middle-ranking statisticians.

Sierra Leone: ECU 1.9m to support the central accounts department.

Zambia: ECU 1.85m for a services support programme.

Mauritania: ECU 1.562m for institutional support for the Ministry of Planning.

Barbados: ECU 250 000 for the Barbados National Development Foundation.

Miscellaneous

Congo: ECU 200000 as support for the legislative elections which are expected to take place soon.

Malawi: ECU I 998 254 as assistance for refugees.

Senegal: ECU 22.5m for the St Louis regional development programme.

Burundi: ECU 1.95m to support the electoral process in the final phase of democratisation, embarked upon by the Burundi Government with the recognition of the international community.

SADC countries: ECU 5 million for a regional training programme to help improve food security in the Southern African Development Community area at national, regional and SADC level and to support moves aimed at increasing agricultural output and reducing poverty.

European investment bank

New support for private sector

The European Investment Bank has signed the first agreements with five European Community financial institutions for financing equity and quasiequity participation in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the ACP countries. The funds will be drawn from a total ECU 15 million made available from risk capital resources provided for under the fourth Lome Convention.

The financial intermediaries participatina in this financing scheme are initially limited to one per Member State. Agreements have been signed with the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) in the United Kingdom, the Compania Espanola de financiacion del Desarrollo (COFIDES) in Spain, the Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG) in Germany, the Nederlandse Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden (FMO) in the Netherlands and the Societe de Promotion et de Participation pour la Cooperation Economique (PROPARCO) in France. A further three agreements are expected to be signed shortly.

Loans

The EIB has made the following loans:

Jamaica: ECU 9m for extending and upgrading Jamaica's power transmission facilities. The loan is for the installation of two new 69 kV lines (totalling 16.4 km overhead and 1.7 km underground) and for the reconductoring of an existing 69 kV line of 8.3 km. The works are part of a wider energy programme scheduled for completion by the end of 1995. Costed at ECU 150m, the programme is cofinanced with the World Bank, the Inter American Development Bank and other public and private sector financial institutions.

Barbados: ECU 10m for works to protect the environment on the south coast of the island. The loan agreement was signed by Sir Brian Unwin on his first day as the new EIB President, and Erskine Sandiford, the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs of Barbados.

The funds from the EIB are made available to the Government of Barbados under the fourth Lome Convention, and are to be on-lent to the Barbados Water Authority, a public company responsible for the management, allocation and monitoring of the island's water resources. This is the largest loan ever made by the EIB in Barbados, where total EIB financing to date amounts to ECU 25.4m.

Visit

Jacques Delors, the President of the Commission, and Manuel Marin, the Commissoner responsible for development and humanitarian aid, met Alpha Oumar Konare, the President of Mali, in Brussels on 2 June.

They discussed Mali's prospects and the political and economic constraints facing the new democratic regime which took power following the elections in 1991 and 1992.

Political change had indeed to go hand in hand with economic reform, and the application of the National Pact, which put an end to a long period of problems and civil unrest in the northern parts of the country, had to be backed up by a greater effort for the Tuareg people who lived there.

President Konare and the Commission representatives also had a frank exchange of views on the political and economic situation in western Africa and the continent as a whole. This featured African integration issues, particularly Community support for the Senegal River Valley Development Organisation and Community cooperation in the forthcoming negotiations of the second Lome IV financial protocol.

EEC-Mali cooperation under the first financial protocol was going well. Mali had ECU 136 million in grants under the indicative programme (1990-94) as well as structural adjustment support allocations which, to date, were worth ECU 40 million. There had also been financial assistance amounting to some ECU 800 000 from Community aid counterpart funds to help run the elections.