TIRANA, June 18 (Xinhua) -- European Union and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) announced here on Monday that a 100 million euros (around 106 million U.S. dollars) investment program will be launched in Albania for tourist areas.

EBRD Vice President Alain Pilloux visiting Albania declared that this fund will be invested in small tourism businesses.

"We are preparing with the government and the EU an innovative program, in order to support the growth of the private sector in Albania. It will be a great program of 100 million euro," underlined Pilloux.

According to Pilloux, this program will go to the function of the tourism sector to build local roads and water supply in these areas, and will also provide funding for small tourism businesses as well as will finance the protection and re-establishment of cultural and natural heritage.

Albanian Minister of Finance and Economy Arben Ahmetaj declared that the government this week will approve to lower the taxes to agritourism businesses.

The program will be a mixed funding, where half of the money is soft loans to the government, whereas the other half is grants.