BSTDB SUPPORTS SMALL BUSINESS IN RUSSIA
Press Release | 22-Dec-2000
On December 22, 2000 in Moscow Mr. E.Volkan, President of BSTDB and Mr. I.Yuzhanov, Minister of the Russian Federation for Antimonopoly Policy and Support to Entrepreneurship, and Mr.A.Runov, Chairman of the Federal Fund for Small Business Support signed a Memorandum of Understanding setting a framework for cooperation in supporting small business development in Russia.
The Memorandum envisages cooperation of the three institutions in providing loans and co-financing as well as facilitating investments, foreign borrowings, and development of a system of guaranteeing credits to small and medium-size enterprises (SME) in Russia.
The Memorandum represents another important step that BSTDB takes to support the SME sector in its member countries, Russia in particular. In November this year, BSTDB approved a USD 12 million credit line for SME and expanding businesses in southern regions of Russia - Stavropol, Krasnodar and Rostov. The loan will be extended to selected Russian banks for on-lending operations to SME borrowers, for the period of up to 5 years. The size of the sub-loans would vary from USD 100,000 to USD 3.0 million. Financing, in US dollars, will be provided for viable projects of purchase of capital goods, construction of building and auxiliaries, import of inputs for processing, and leasing. Any bank registered in Russia and operating in the Southern regions that meets BSTDB eligibility criteria can sign a loan agreement with BSTDB to participate in the lending programme.
The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) is an international financial institution established in 1998 by Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Türkiye, and Ukraine. BSTDB headquarters is in Thessaloniki (Greece). With the authorized capital of SDR 1 billion BSTDB supports economic development and regional cooperation by providing financing for projects and trade transactions to public and private enterprises in its Member States. SME support is one of Bank's priorities. Apart from the credit line for Russian SME, BSTDB together with IFC of the World Bank Group, USAID, SEAF and a number of reputable international investors established a USD25 million Trans Balkan SME Equity Fund for Balkan countries; the Bank extended USD 10 million to support Turkish SME affected by the last year's severe earthquakes in that country. Besides, SME are the main target group for the BSTDB's Trade Finance Programme.