German KFW Development Bank to Support Energo Safety in Georgia
An agreement was signed on April 13 by Georgia’s First Vice Premier and Minister of Finance, Dimitry Kumsishvili; the German Ambassador to Georgia, Heike Peitsch; Chairman of the Management Board of the Georgian State Electrosystem, Sulkhan Zumburidze; and Klaus Viegel, Head of the KFW Caucasus Office, according to which KFW Development Bank is to give a EUR 125 million loan to Georgia to expand its electro transmission network.
The Georgian Ministry of Finance announces the program is to ensure infrastructure development in order to link hydro power plants to the electro transmission network, with the expectation of increasing its strength and energo safety overall.
Kumsishvili expressed his gratitude to the German government and the German governmental organizations working in Georgia- to GIZ and to the KFW Development Bank, which has been supporting important projects in Georgia for the last 25 years.
“The EUR 125 million financial resource is crucial for the strengthening of Georgia’s energo safety and for the increase of electro transmission in the country,” Kumsishvili said. “The project will enable the building of power plants to not only sell produced electric power locally, but also to export it”.
He went on to emphasize the importance of assistance from Germany in Georgia’s development.
“To date, EUR 700 million in concessive credits and grants have been made accessible, a vital help from Germany. These relations and support will continue in future,” he said.
German Ambassador Peitsch in turn emphasized the importance of energo safety to Georgia and noted that Georgia and Germany are marking the 25th anniversary of cooperation in the sphere of development within the celebration of the Georgian-German year. The Ambassador noted that Germany had provided almost half a billion Euro in financing for projects in the energo sphere since 1993.
Under the framework of Phase Two of Georgia’s Electro Transmission Network Expansion program, the new stage of the multi-year support project is to begin, with a plan to develop the infrastructure of the transmission network in Guria region in the direction of Turkey, and the integration of the hydro power plants located in the north-south part of Georgia into the energo network.
Nino Gugunishvili