Announcement of Three Hundred and Eighty Thousand Dollars Credit to Burundi on June 15, 1970

• INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION 1818 H STREET, N.W., WASHINGTON D. C. 20433 TELEPHONE: EXECUTIVE 3-6360 IDA Press Release No. 70/30 Subject: $380,000 credit to Burundi June 15, 1970 The International Development Association (IDA) has approved a credit of $380,000 for highway engineering and a road maintenance study in Burundi. The project will prepare the way for highway improvements which will lower transport costs -- a significant factor in Burundi's economic development. All internal transport in landlocked Burundi is by road; overseas traffic goes by road, lake and rail some 870 miles to the port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi, on Lake Tanganyika, is the focal • point for all traffic, both internal and external, so good road connections to this city are essential. The IDA credit will finance the foreign exchange costs of the services of co-asu!.tants who will undertake detailed engineering of the 75-mile road from Bujumbura to Nyanza Lac near the border of Tanzania; and a study of improvements required for maintenance operations throughout the country. The latter will in- ~lu:le a study of betterment works on the 102-mile road from Gitega to the Tanzanian border which serves potentially important agricultural areas in the e3f.t. The Bujumbura-Nyanza Lac road is used for the shipment of the principal er.ops, bananas, coffee and cotton, and serves the fishing industry. The project was formulated on the basis of a highway feasibility study under- taken with financial assistance from the United Nations Development Programme fo= which the World Bank was Executing Agency. • The IDA credit will be extended to The Republic of Burundi for & term of 10 years, including 2 years of grace. It will be interest-free but will carry a ser- vice charge of 3/4 of 1%. If the World Bank Group later lends for construction of the roads and ma-:~.n.- tenance operations covered by the studies to be undertaken, the pr:asent lDA cred.~-t may be refinanced under the new lending. - 0 -