The Russian Federation's Finance Minister, Anton Siluanov, said in Moscow on Friday that Russia had approved a loan of 800 million US dollars to Serbia for its rail infrastructure, the media in Belgrade reported, adding that the time for servicing the loan is five years.
Siluanov was quoted as saying that the loan would be made available to Serbia by the end of this year with a 4.1% annual interest rate.
According to the Serbian media which quoted reports from the Russian Ria Novosti and Interfaks news agencies, one of the projects to be funded by this loan is the purchase of diesel engines and trains from Metrovagonmash, an engineering company in Russia.
All those projects are estimated at $920 million, with Serbia expected to secure 15% of that sum, that is $120 million.
In addition, under the loan agreement provisions. Russian companies are expected to be engaged in the overhaul of the rail infrastructure in Serbia.
