The World Bank plans redistributing funds that are issued to St. Petersburg for development of its economic potential and restoration of monuments of culture.

The programme Economic Development of St. Petersburg is aimed at support of the activity of the city government to reform the economic policy and legislation and to preserve the cultural heritage of St. Petersburg.

A total of 161 million dollars are to be issued under the five-year programme. Initially, 100 million dollars were slated for its economic component and 61 million for culture projects.

The director of the World Bank office in Russia, Kristalina Georgieva, said at the meeting with St. Petersburg governor Valentina Matviyenko on Wednesday that the bank planned switching 40 million dollars that were intended for the economic part of the project to a programme of the restoration of historical monuments.

Implementing the economic programme, the city could do without these funds, while finance usually proves short for development of culture, and this is a problem of not only Russia, she explained.

With this reasoning the World Bank decided to redistribute the money on agreement with the city, Georgieva told reporters.

A World Bank delegation inspected during in St. Petersburg the progress of the joint programme, visiting the Mariinsky Theatre, the Hermitage museum and the St. Catherine Palace.

The bank’s representatives stated that the programme was implemented on the whole successfully

News source: tass.ru
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