The road sections Criva – Balti (national road M5), with a length of 133 km, and Balti – Floresti – Gura Camencii (national road R13), with a length of 40 km, will be repaired. The authorities plan to raise a loan from the largest Chinese bank, the ICBC (Industrial and Construction Bank of China). The cost of works will be assessed as a result of negotiations.

In a response to an inquiry made by IPN News Agency, the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure said that Minister Kirill Gaburici recently signed a memorandum of intent on road rehabilitation with a delegation of the Chinese company China Hyway Group Limited. The company will facilitate the raising of the loan from the ICBC and will perform the road rehabilitation works when the negotiations on technical (contract conditions and cost of works) and financial aspects (conditions of lending from the ICBC) are completed.

The signed memorandum is a framework agreement that specifies the sides’ intention to rehabilitate and build 330 km of national roads in four stages. Each stage will be negotiated separately, when the necessary documents (feasibility studies, technical project, environmental studies, etc.) are worked out. The road sections selected for the first stage have the required technical documentation, while the feasibility studies need to be updated.

The period planned for finishing the works at the first stage is of 36 months, plus another 12 months, which is the period for notifying defects. The launch of works depends on the completion of the technical and financial negotiations.

The network of nations roads consists of 5 900 km of express, national and regional roads. Some 205 km of road were rehabilitated, while 400 km of road are under rehabilitation.