The parliament approved the bilateral financial agreement between the governments of Bulgaria and Japan for the planned construction of container terminals at the two major Black Sea ports of Varna and Burgas. The project is valued at EUR 340.9mn. The Japan Bank for International Development (JBIC) will provide EUR 230.5mn credit or 67.6% of the total amount. The state budget will secure the remaining amount. The container cargo turnover is expected to quadruple until 2015 when the new terminals are to start operations. The credit is the sixth and last one under Japan ’s government aid for development ODA which should be completed in 2015. The total aid from Japan in the past 20 years amounts to USD 1.2bn (the new loan excluded).