KYIV. Dec 7 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Ukrainian government and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on December 4 signed an agreement on the second development policy loan worth JPY 36.969 billion or around $300 million, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported.
“The loan aims at increasing efficiency and transparency of the public sector, deregulation and improvement of conditions for doing business,” Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko said after signing the agreement.
Japan representatives said that one of the elements of the loan is the reform of inefficient utilities subsidies. They said that technical assistance to new agencies to fight corruption will be additionally provided.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk said that the loan is issued for 20 years with the grace period of six years and JPY LIBOR + 0.5%, and today it is less than 1% per annum.
Japan in August 2014 provided the first development policy loan of $100 million.
