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TIRANA, Albania, Oct. 12 (UPI) The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has announced a $60 million financing package for Albania as part of the agency's strategy of rehabilitating petroleum, mining and other key sectors of the Albanian economy.
"The IFC is building up rapidly a portfolio and we have a commitment of about $60 million," IFC Executive Vice President Peter Woice said Tuesday in Tirana. "We have a lot of projects in pipeline, so I would not be surprised if the IFC commitment will reach potentially $100 million."
The IFC, part of the World Bank Group, arranges financing for private sector projects in developing nations. Woice is on a three-nation tour of southeastern Europe with stops planned in Turkey and Macedonia.
The IFC's strategy in Albania is focused on rehabilitation of key industrial sectors such as oil, natural gas, mining and telecommunications, a press release issued by the IFC office in Tirana said.
The IFC says it is talking with potential investors about for investment in chromium mining and smelting as well as in cement production.
The IFC has already arranged the largest syndication that has ever been assembled in Albania for the $275 million Patos Marinze oilfield rehabilitation project.
Other western oil companies are searching for oil and natural gas in Albanian both offshore and on land.
The German company Preussag is dealing with the chromium industry in Albania, which in 1980 was the world's third-largest exporter of chromium after South Africa and Turkey. Since 1985, however, Albanian mines and its oil industry have suffered from a lack of investment and modernization. Much of the mining industry, which also includes cooper, coal and ferrochromium, have not been working.