EXIM Board Unanimously Approves Financing for 3 projects in Romania, Kazakhstan and Iraq

(EXIM, Washington, 22 September 2023) The Board of Directors of EXIM has approved 3 transactions in the energy and transportation sectors. The first transaction a direct loan for more than $57 million to EnergoNuclear S.A. to support pre-construction engineering and feasibility studies for the potential development of two nuclear reactors at the Cernavodă nuclear power plant complex in Romania. The transaction, issued under EXIM’s Engineering Multiplier Program, will support an estimated 200 new jobs in Texas and Illinois. The EXIM Board also approved a $594 million loan guarantee to the national railway of Kazakhstan, KTZ, to support the export of Wabtec locomotive and locomotive shunter kits to KTZ. The transaction will support an estimated 1,500 U.S. jobs. The final transaction approved by the Board was a $240 million guarantee of a loan to the Ministry of Electricity of the Republic of Iraq to finance the export of GE Energy products to support the repair and upgrade of operating gas turbines in ten locations in Iraq. The transaction is estimated to support approximately 500 U.S. jobs across California, Connecticut, Illinois, Ohio, Oregon, Massachusetts, and Nevada. [An aside re Iraq: A recent Brown University study found that the 2003-2011 Iraq war cost the US $2.9 trillion, over 500,000 lives, created 7 million refugees, nearly 8 million displaced persons and a legacy of ISIS like terrorism throughout the world. Pentagon spending since 2001 has totaled over $14 trillion, one-third to one-half of which went to defense contractors.]