Page 24 - bne_newspaper_March_08_2019

Weekly Lists
March 8, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 24
bne:
Infrastructure
Romanian businessman builds single metre of motorway to protest lack of infrastructure
Dubai’s DP World eyes new infrastructure investments in Kazakh port and logistics sectors
A young Romanian businessman from the northeastern town of Suceava has built a metre of motorway to protest the lack of infra- structure in Romania, especially in the eastern part of the country.
Stefan Mandachi, owner of the Spartan fast-food chain, is on a mission to push the government to invest into better roads, a criti- cism also repeatedly made by international investors in the country. Romania’s eastern region in particular lacks modern infrastructure and as a consequence it finds it difficult to attract investors.
Mandachi says he has built the very first metre of motorway in Romania’s historic Moldova region, at a cost of €4,500, reported local newspaper Monitorul de Suceava. The “motorway” will be inaugurated on March 15.
Dubai's global ports operator DP World is in talks to potentially in- vest in new infrastructure in Kazakh port and logistics sectors, the company said in a statement on March 5.
The statement follows DP World’s chairman and chief executive Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem’s meeting with Kazakhstan’s Prime Minister Askar Mamin in Astana on March 5. Kazakhstan has been largely channeling investments into its infrastructure from China thanks to the huge Belt and Road initiative. The country is betting on foreign investment to support its growth, which stood at 4.1% in 2018 and 4% in 2017 after plunging to 1% in 2016.
DP World has been providing management services to Kazakh- stan’s main cargo terminal on the Caspian Sea, the Aktau port, and to the Khorgos SEZ and Inland Container Terminal on the Kazakh- Chinese border.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank Group, has arranged $202mn of debt finance and a guarantee package for the construction of a 250MW power plant in Armenia.
The construction of Armenia’s first greenfield project-financed power plant will help boost the Caucasian country’s power generation and drive economic growth, the IFC said in a statement on March 4. It points out that two-thirds of electricity in Armenia comes from imported fuel, and much of the electricity produced at home comes from dated low-efficiency thermal power plants.
IFC arranges $202mn package for new Armenian power plant