The City of Chisinau is the capital of Moldova and the largest political, administrative, economic, cultural and educational centre in the country. With around 800,000 inhabitants, representing around 25% of the population of the country, the municipality contributes to roughly 50% of GDP and 50% of the total volume of the industrial production. The City’s budget for 2009 was around $130 million.

The total project cost is estimated at around $40 million. The proposed IFC investment is a senior loan of up to $15MM.

10.0 million (USD)

Product Line	IFC Investment (million USD)
Risk Management
Guarantee
Loan	10.0
Equity

* These investment figures are indicative

The City of Chisinau is located in the centre of the Republic on the river Bic.

IFC role is to provide funding to Chisinau City on competitive terms for long term tenors in line with the long-lived nature of its assets. IFC also expects to provide strategic advice in formulation of the City investment priorities and technical expertise during project preparation and implementation and facilitate and trigger further high-priority investments in local municipal infrastructure.

The proposed Project will help the City of Chisinau diversify its funding sources and finance essential infrastructure assets that will expand access and improve service delivery for the residents of the City. The project is expected to improve the living standards and conditions for social and economic development in the disadvantaged areas of the City, minimize public health risks and improve environment in the region.

This is a category B project according to IFC’s environmental and social review procedure. As the Project is aimed at rehabilitation/extension the City’s water/wastewater and City’s streets, minimal or no adverse impacts on environment or community health and safety are expected. Key social and environmental issues associated with this project include an evaluation of the municipal organization’s capacity to: 1) manage specific health, safety and environmental aspects related to rehabilitation of the existing City’s streets and an extension of its water/wastewater network, 2) minimize or avoid land acquisition, bio-diversity, protected area, cultural asset, and landscape impacts, as well as right-of-way aspects related extension of water, wastewater networks, and 3) occupational, health & safety (OH&S) of water/wastewater and road networks maintenance. A number of measures to improve management practices in this area are agreed in the Environmental and Social Action Plan (ESAP).

A summary of IFC’s environmental and social review findings for the project including the rationale for the B categorization is publicly available in the Environmental and Social Review Summary (ESRS) disclosed through IFC’s external website (http://www.ifc.org/projects).