YEREVAN, January 11. /ARKA/. The World Bank may provide $150 million to Armenia within the Country Partnership Strategy 2014-17 cycle, Jean-Michel Happi, the World Bank’s Country Manager for Armenia, said in an interview with ARKA News Agency.

He said the strategy and the overall financial assistance will be discussed and agreed upon with the Government in the context of country’s development strategy.

“We expect to commit around 150 mln USDs, that in itself being subject to negotiations with the Government with most of it being allocated to Budget support operations, agriculture, social protection, education among other interventions,” he said in his interview.

The World Bank has committed $1.6 billion to Armenia over two decades of its cooperation with the country for implementation of 57 projects.

The term of the strategy of partnership with Armenia, which was developed in 2009 after the global economic recession, expires in the middle of 2013.

The total amount earmarked by the World Bank for Armenia as assistance to the government is $640.6 million (IDA/IBRD).

Some 14 WB-funded programs are being implemented in Armenia now. The Lifeline Road Improvement Project (LRIP), the Municipal Water Project (MWP), the Municipal Water and Wastewater (MWWP), the Irrigation Rehabilitation Emergency Project (IREP), the Electricity Supply Reliability Project (ESRP), the Geothermal Energy Project (GEP), the Energy Efficiency Project (EEP) and the Community Agricultural Resource Management and Competitiveness (CARMAC) projects are among them.

Other programs are the Access to Finance for Small and Medium Enterprises, the Armenia Social Investment Fund (ASIF) III Project, the Second Health Modernization Project (HMP), the Second Judicial Reform Project (JRP-II) and the Second Public Sector Modernization Project (PSMP-II), the Education Quality and Relevance Project (EQRP), the Social Protection Administration Project (SPAP) and the E-Society and Innovation for Competitiveness Project (EIC). -0---