WB okays loans for RI

WB okays loans for RI

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones): The World Bank Thursday approved new loans for Indonesia and Russia as its board rushed to complete its agenda of loan requests before the onset of the holidays.

The World Bank said in a statement it has approved a loan of US$48.2 million to help Indonesia improve rural infrastructure and provide micro-finance in poor areas.

It said that it has also approved a loan of $122.5 million for Russia to back a government water and sanitation project.

"The project will support the most critical and immediate investments needed to improve the operation of the water and wastewater systems of 14 Russian cities with less than 500,000 inhabitants," it said.

Earlier, the board approved two loans totaling more than $1 billion for Turkey under a $5 billion, multi-year financial support program.