World Bank loans 60 million US dollars for rural aid

World bank enthusiasm for 848 development projects supervised last year by the rural and municipal affairs ministry has attracted a 60 million US dollar loan from the international lending institution to further help rural areas, according to minister Hagop Demerdjian.

The minister revealed on July 14 that several missions over the past month set into motion the loan, with World Bank officials "challenging" Lebanese officials to spend it in five years.

If the 60 million US dollars is spent faster than scheduled, more funds may be made available.

Demerdjian said that the positive response was due to approximately 35 million US dollars spent on rural projects in 1996, taken from local sources such as the community development fund.

The fund, designed to help the country's municipalities, is constituted partially by sources such as customs revenues and insurance premiums.

"After last year's projects, we received requests from community figures and other local people for about 160 projects, and we required external help for this," he said.

The minister called the scale of spending " small, but important " since street lights, roads, and sewers for the country's poorer areas are to be improved.