The Government on November 13 is to approve its last decision concerning the implementation of the bill on the restructuring of the centralized heating system of Chisinau municipality, said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Valeriu Lazar. Under the bill, the heat supplier SA Termocom will merge with the thermoelectric plants CET-1 and CET-2. There will be created a new enterprise and the corporate and financial management will be restructured.

“The World Bank promised to offer us a loan of US$30 million. Of this sum, US$20 million will go to remove the losses of heat. The losses in the networks of Termocom now represent over 20%. The other US$10 million will be used to provide guarantees to financial institutions for taking out loans to clear the debts to Gazprom,” the official said in a news conference. According to him, the Chisinau Municipal Council must also approve the decision regarding the merger of the three companies by the end of November.

“The World Bank will grant the loan in preferential conditions – for a period of 40 years, with a grace period of 10 years and an interest rate of 0.75%. If we do not manage to approve the decisions on the merger by the end of this month, we will not receive this money in preferential conditions,” said the Deputy Prime Minister.

Valeriu Lazar also said that the employees of the three restructured companies will not be affected. The World Bank will provide an additional US$3 million for the re-qualification of employees.