YEREVAN, June 20. /ARKA/. The Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development (EFSD) has provided $490 million to finance a string of infrastructure projects in Armenia, Alexey Cherekaev, an EFSD project group director, said in an interview with ARKA news agency.

He said the total funding consists of a budget assistance loan to the tune of $300 million, a loan for the construction of the North-South highway ($150 million) and an irrigation project loan ($40 million). He added that EFSD is considering another project for the construction of the Mastara reservoir worth $40 million.

He said since Armenia is entitled to claim assistance for another $510 million from EFSD, the latter is ready to consider new projects in the same sectors. In his words, the issue of additional financing is primarily linked with Armenia’s debt sustainability and its budget rule.

"Now, as you know, Armenia has a rather complicated debt situation, and all the loans provided by the EFSD are sovereign loans. This means they are added to the country’s external debt. Therefore, if the situation improves slightly and the debt burden becomes easier, the consideration of new projects will go faster,’ he said.

The Eurasian Stabilization and Development Fund ($8.513 billion) was established on June 9, 2009 by Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to support economic stability in member countries.-0-