On August 27, the WB Board approved an additional, US $36.6mln, loan to the Republic of Armenia for the Lifeline Roads Improvement Project (LRIP).

The WB press service reported that this additional loan will help mitigate the impact of the financial crisis by creating temporary jobs in road construction. The additional loan will finance the scaling up of the project's activities through rehabilitating an additional 140 kilometers of the lifeline road network. The work is to get under way late this September.

The WB has allocated a total of US $1bln to Armenia over the last 17 years.