Press Release

ZAMBIA RECEIVES US$6 MILLION LOAN FROM OPEC FUND TO REHABILITATE MAJOR ROAD

06/2005 January 12, 2005, Vienna, Austria

The OPEC Fund for International Development today signed a US$6 million loan agreement with the Republic of Zambia to rehabilitate sections of a 45.36 kilometer-long road connecting the cities of Kafulafuta and Luanshya. The route forms part of the strategic main road network of the Copper Belt Province and is a key component of the government's road sector investment program.

Since its construction in 1966, the bitumen-paved Kafulafuta-Luanshya road has served heavy volumes of daily traffic, resulting in its severe deterioration. As the stretch also passes through predominantly agricultural areas and serves as an important bypass for those traveling from Kitwe to the capital Lusaka, its rehabilitation has consequently been accorded high priority.

The OPEC Fund's intervention covers the civil works activities of the project that mainly entail road reconstruction and surfacing, the spreading of pavement layers, and the provision of road markings and signs. The project will also involve the recruitment of an engineering consultancy to undertake the supervision of the set activities and to ensure their effective implementation.

The rehabilitated Kafulafuta-Luanshya road will improve social and economic integration and increase public access to social services, schools and healthcare in poverty-stricken communities. It will also ease the flow of agricultural inputs and produce and create employment opportunities.

Zambia has benefited from 11 earlier loans from the OPEC Fund. Of these, one was extended under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, and nine others supported projects in the transportation, education, national development banks and agriculture sectors. The country has also been the recipient of a technical assistance grant in the area of education, and has benefited from the Fund's initiative against HIV/AIDS in Africa, as well as from the Fund's special Food Aid Grant Account.

Today's agreement was signed in Vienna by Mr. L ennard Nkhata, Permanent Secretary, Financial Management and Administration Division, Ministry of Finance and National Planning of the Republic of Zambia, and by H.E. Mr. Jamal Nasser Lootah, Chairman of the Governing Board of the OPEC Fund.

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