The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) loaned the Ukrainian government 258 million dollars Wednesday for work on a trans-European highway, according to Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. The money will go towards improving a dilapidated blacktop connecting the Ukrainian capital Kiev with the town Chop, on Ukraine's western Hungarian border. The modernised highway would connect Ukraine into the European road system and so help link Ukraine's economy with Europe's, according to a Ukraine Cabinet of Ministers statement. The money is being offered at a 3.5 per cent annual rate over a 15-year period - terms roughly four times better than commercial loans currently available in Ukraine's overheating economy. The EBRD already has advanced Ukraine the equivalent of 200 million dollars for the project. Ukraine's government has invested some 70 million dollars. A completion date has not been announced. Ukraine using private loans and tax money has improved a stretch of modern highway of similar length, from Kiev to the Black Sea port city Odessa, over five years. The project is approximately 70 per cent complete.
