Minister of Finance Gagik Khachatryan and Chairman of the Management Board of Eurasian Development Bank Dmitry Pankin signed Friday, October 16, an agreement on a $40 million investment loan for Armenia.

Provided from Eurasian Economic Community’s Anti-Crisis Fund, the loan will help implement a program of modernization of irrigation systems and the development of institutional capacities of water consuming units. The program also plans to raise the efficiency of irrigation systems, expand the area of irrigated lands, as well as develop managerial capacities.

The program consists of 4 main components: replacement of mechanical irrigation with gravity irrigation, restoration of ditches, modernization of in-house irrigation systems of water consuming units and development of institutional capacities of water consuming units.

Provision of stable and quality water supply for agricultural purposes, as well as the development of institutional capacities will substantially boost the development of agriculture, growth in export of agricultural products, at the same time creating new jobs, the Ministry said in a statement.