YANGON, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar's Union Parliament has passed a motion to accept a soft loan of 30 million euros (about 40 million U.S. dollars) from Italy to implement projects of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation, Myanmar News Agency reported Tuesday.
The Italian government is providing the soft loan with the aim of supporting electrification of the entire country through a preliminary electrification system in villages far away from the national grid.
The soft loan will allow provision of electricity in the form of solar home system and mini-grid system to the barely accessible Chin state and its neighboring areas under a pre-electrification system for villages out of reach of the national power grid.
It is expected that 96,500 households in 1,015 villages will benefit from that.
The 30 million euros' interest-free loan is offered with a grace period of 18 years and repayment period of 10 years starting 2036-37 fiscal year.
The parliament on Monday also discussed a 40.5 million U.S. dollars' loan from the Asian Development Bank to be used also by the same ministry to fund the Climate-Friendly Agribusiness Value Chains Sector Project for a total of 14 townships in Central Myanmar's Magway, Mandalay and Sagaing regions.
The loan will be used for the production of agricultural products that meet the ISO 17025 standards, which will help penetrate the foreign markets.
