Finance & Economics | WPN World People News

The World Bank Group’s Board of Executive Directors today approved Euro 32.1 million in IBRD financing for the Health System Improvement Project in Albania. The total project cost is Euro 36.1 million, with the remainder co-financed by the Government of Albania. The project will support improving the efficiency of care in selected hospitals in Albania, improving the management of information in the health system, and increasing financial access to health services.

Spain announced that it will contribute €1.5 billion to projects benefiting from finance by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) which is the core element of the Investment Plan for Europe on February 27. The contribution comes via Spain's National Promotional Bank, the Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO).

UK government announced £5.6 million of funding for 6 projects creating new specialist skills and careers in the engineering industry on February 27 .

The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved $100 million in additional financing for an ongoing project to help improve living standards for poor people in six provinces in Vietnam’s Northwest, the nation’s poorest region.

This month, the World Bank Group announced the debarment of four companies involved in misconduct relating to projects in Bolivia, Bangladesh and Cambodia. The debarments were announced by the Sanctions Board following investigations by the World Bank’s Integrity Vice Presidency (INT).

The World Bank Group’s Board of Executive Directors Wednesday approved an allocation of US$45 million equivalent to finance the second phase of the transformative Central Asia Road Links Program, to be implemented in Tajikistan in 2015-2020. The objective of this project is to increase transport connectivity between Tajikistan and neighboring countries along key cross-border road links in Sughd Oblast, and thus connect people and firms, markets and opportunities, regionally.

The Latvian economy is among the fastest-growing in the euro area, but continued reforms will promote a rapid and sustainable pace of convergence with upper-income countries while limiting the risk of repeated boom-and-bust cycles, according to the OECD Economic Survey of Latvia.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission visited Jamaica during February 16-25, 2015 to conduct discussions on the seventh review of Jamaica’s IMF-supported program under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF).