Bulgaria has signed a BGN 3 M (EUR 1.5 M) advisory services agreement in the water and sewerage sector with the World Bank, the government announced on Tuesday.

The agreement aims to develop a new strategy for financing of the water and sewerage sector, increase the efficiency of services and boost the regulatory capacity, the government said in a statement. The project will be implemented over the next 28 months. The project financing will come from the EU’s Operational Programme Environment 2014-2020.

The agreement was signed by Regional Development Minister Lilyana Pavlova and World Bank Country Manager for Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia Tony Thompson in Sofia on Tuesday afternoon.

The agreement calls for drafting a strategy for financing the industry in the medium and long term with options to reduce the impact on prices for consumers, developing a mechanism for reinvesting a part of the revenue from water supply services, which is a precondition for the management of EU funds during the 2014-2020 programming period, and streamlining of capital and operating costs of water companies, according to the statement.

At the meeting, the representatives of the Bulgarian government and the World Bank also discussed the framework for partnership by 2020.

Over the next two years, partnership will focus on supporting stability in the financial sector, assisting reforms in the energy sector as well as the management of investment from the structural funds of trhe European Union, the government said.