BEIRUT:- The World Bank said Tuesday it has
earmarked $200 million for repairing Lebanon's unsafe roads, signaling a
resumption of international aid months after the election of a president
following a two-year political vacuum in the tiny Mediterranean country.
The international lender said in a statement
that the funds will be used to repair around 500 kilometers (312 miles) of
roads in the first phase of a broader government plan "to revamp the
country's crumbling road sector."
It said the Roads and Employment Project was
approved Monday by its board of directors.
Ferid Belhaj, the World Bank's Middle East
director, said the project would "help Lebanon continue to offer basic
services both to its citizens and to Syrian refugees in the country."
Lebanon is home to some 1.2 million Syrian
refugees, the equivalent of a quarter of its own population.
Hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance
money from the World Bank was held up as Lebanon's long-feuding factions failed
to agree on a president for more than two years.
In October, the parliament was
finally able to elect Michel Aoun, the leader of a Christian party allied with
the Shiite Hezbollah movement.
0 Comments