On December 9, the Government of Ukraine and the European Investment Bank (EIB) signed an agreement "Urban Public Transport II" to attract loans for the development of public transport in the cities of Ukraine.

The total amount of the credit line is EUR 200 million. The funding will be used to purchase the new rolling stock of urban public electric transport for medium towns and cities, as well as to rehabilitate and develop electric transport infrastructure.

The signed agreement is a continuation of the project "Ukraine Public Transport" jointly with the EIB and the EBRD, which has been implemented since May 2017 in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, Ternopil, Lutsk, Sumy, Zaporizhia, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernihiv.

EIB loan funding for the project is an opportunity for Ukrainian cities to raise resources to purchase new modern trams, trolleybuses, subway cars, electric buses, as well as to expand the electric transport network and launch new routes.

"This project allows us both to immediately increase the mobility of citizens and improve the environmental situation in cities. World experience shows that the development of public transport is the best tool for solving the problems of constant traffic jams in the streets and the daily loss by our citizens of the most valuable resource - the time. Therefore, this project provides an opportunity to improve the quality of public transport and the level of mobility of residents of Ukrainian cities. It is important that the emphasis is on environmentally friendly public transport, which is fully consistent with modern European approaches. It is especially gratifying that this project also opens the possibility of launching public electric transport even in those cities lacking it before," said Deputy Finance Minister Oleksandr Kava.

The Ministry of Finance invites interested city leaders to join the project.

The loan is provided for a term of up to 22 years (from 2021 to 2042) with a grace period of 5 years. The EIB loan rate can be floating (EURIBOR + margin up to 1%) or fixed (today up to 1%).