site.btaGovernment Allocates Lv 135 Mln in Funding for Northwestern Bulgaria's Infrastructure

Government Allocates Lv 135 Mln in Funding for Northwestern Bulgaria's Infrastructure

Vidin, on the Danube, June 21 (BTA) - The government has allocated 135 million leva in funding for the infrastructure of Northwestern Bulgaria, and 30 million leva of it will go into Vidin Region, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said on Tuesday. Borissov was in Dimovo, Vidin Region, together with Regional Development and Public Works Minister Liliyana Pavlova and Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov at the beginning of their tour of infrastructure rehabilitation projects in this part of the country.

The Prime Minister noted that the rehabilitation of the central boulevard in Dimovo alone will absorb 2 million leva in funding. "The truth is that where there are roads, there is business and there is life. The money seized from smugglers will be invested in roads," he declared. The government leader apologized to the local people that the Bulgarian Northwest has been neglected in recent years, but said that national budget money cannot be used for activities for which there is a European project.

Minister Pavlova said the injustice which had been inflicted on the residents of Dimovo was corrected in the short span of 35 days. According to Pavlova, 25 million leva will be invested in 60 km of infrastructure from Vidin to Montana. Some 140 million leva in government funding will be invested in 250 km of roads in Northern Bulgaria, mainly in the northwestern parts.

The Bulgarian Northwest is officially the poorest region in the EU.