The Ambassador of the European Union to South Africa, Roeland van de Geer and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) CEO, Patrick Dlamini launched the €100 million (R1.5 billion) ground breaking Infrastructure Investment Programme for South Africa (IIPSA) on Thursday.

The purpose of the fund is to provide grant funding in support of loans for essential infrastructure projects in the southern African region.

The programme will be used to prepare projects for bankability in the initial stages. It also aims to attract private financing into projects with a high socio-economic return by enhancing the financial feasibility or by reducing the risk associated with such projects.

In order to be eligible to receive financial assistance from the IIPSA fund, projects must comply with the following criteria:

• The project must either be a South African project or
• A regional project which must be a trans-border initiative involving two or more countries in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region with a demonstrable regional impact on one or more countries.
• Key priority sectors will include: energy, transport, water and environment, ICT and social infrastructure.

The fund was established following a joint initiative between the government of South Africa and the European Union, and forms part of the EU's broader intervention under its country strategy for South Africa.

Projects to be supported will be selected from an updated list of priority infrastructure projects established by the IIPSA project steering committee.

A request for proposals will be issued in early April 2014, inviting potential recipients to propose infrastructure investments.