The Brazilian Government and the World Bank signed today (1st) a loan agreement of US$ 106 million for the financing of actions in the area of energy and mining. The loan will benefit the Technical Assistance Project of the Mineral and Energy Sectors (Meta), conceived and coordinated by the Ministry of Mines and Energy. Among the benefited areas are the elaboration of studies, the purchase of equipment, the electric energy universalization and enhancement of sustainability actions. The actions are to be implemented in up to eight years. In the first phase, which was signed today, it will be US$ 53 million, being US$ 49 million funded by the World Bank with counterpart of US$ 4 million from the federal Government. According to the Minister of Mines and Energy, Edison Lobão, part of the resources will be intended to the Electric Power Research Center (Cepel) for the development of projects in the area. The World Bank’s Director for Brazil, Makhtar Diop, said that it is important for the body to support the production of clean energy. "Brazil has the world’s cleanest energy matrix, which, for us, is an example," he said.