China provides USD 608 m- Contract on loan for the second stage of the TE Kostolac B thermal power plant signed

The minister of mining and energy, Aleksandar Antic, said on Wednesday, December 17, 2014, that Serbian and Chinese government signed the contract on loan for the second stage of package project of TE Kostolac B thermal power plant, totaling USD 608 m.

The minister of finance, Dusan Vujovic and the governor of Eksim bank, Li Zougu, have signed the contract today at the Palace of Serbia.

Antic said for RTS that the loan “extremely favorable” with a maturity of 20 years and a seven-year grace period with fixed interest rate of 2,5%.

- It is the most favorable loan we got and is significantly better than the loan for the first stage in 2011 - he said.

After signing, the agreement will be ratified at the Parliament and Antic expects that it will be ratified in January 2015.

After that, as he said, deadline of 47 months for expansion of production at Drmno mine and 58 months for the new thermal power plant construction will start.

Thus, according to Antic, in 2019, Serbia will get the first new energy facility of 350 megawatts, after more than three decades.

-It will provide strong support to stability of energy system, making it more secure and stable, in the meantime we will get higher number of energy sources of lower power from renewable energy sources and it gives us additional stability – the minister of mining and energy said.

Vlada Republike Srbije

Government of the People's Republic of China

Ministarstvo finansija Republike Srbije

Ministarstvo rudarstva i energetike Republike Srbije

Government of China

TE Kostolac B

Dušan Vujović

Eksim bank

Li Zoug

Drmno

Aleksandar Antic