Chisinau, April 5 (Infotag). Nearly 3 hundred provincial entrepreneurs may avail themselves of extra credits to be provided in the framework of the Rural Investment and Services Project (RISP) funded by the World Bank.

The WB Consolidated Agricultural Projects Management Unit organized a news conference in Infotag today, and Unit Director Igor Gorashov said the World Bank had just allocated an extra credit of $5 million to RISP continuation.

RISP consists of two phases of crediting for rural people of business. Its first phase was designed for the years 2002-2005, with a budget of $10.5 million, and the second is for the years 2005-2009, with a budget to be $14.5 million.

As the credits’ maturity was as long as 15 years, demand for such financial instruments turned out to be much greater than could be initially expected, so the first phase ran out of allotted means. To avoid a pause in crediting between the two phases, the Moldovan Government requested extra money from the World Bank, Mr. Gorashov explained.

“Though chances to get this credit were minimal, we managed to negotiate the issue happily, because the RISP keeps away from politics and is targeted at providing support to business development in rural localities”, the Unit Director said.

The credit will be disbursed on standard IDA terms and will be repayable in 40 years, including a 10-year grace period.

During the first phase, 390 investment credits totaling 90 million lei were provided here. The average size of such credits was nearly 235 thousand lei, issued for 4-5 years at an average interest rate of 18% p.a. RISP has also provided 369 micro-financing to a total amount of 42 million lei.

Igor Gorashev said negotiations are currently under way with the Swedish Government on providing extra resources that would permit to issue credits with elements of a grant. Such grant conditions will apply to some 20% of the credit size.

This year, the Republic of Moldova is supposed to repay first 20 million lei of credits issued at the RISP first phase. This money is going to be used overwhelmingly for re-crediting.