The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will allocate 50 million to Belinvestbank for the financing and support of small business and promotion of foreign trade.
Funding will be granted under the lending program for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, in which the size of a credit line is 20 million euros, as well as programs to promote trade with the EBRD within a limit of 30 million euros. This allows Belinvestbank to obtain long-term resources for lending to customers of private ownership.
Gennady Sysoev, Chairman of the Board of Belinvestbank, said that the cooperation will contribute to greater commercialization of the bank, the use of market-based approaches. He said that funds have been allocated for up to four years with “quite attractive interest rates.”
It should be noted that these are the first credit lines directly provided by the EBRD in favor of the state Belinvestbank for the maintenance and development of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, the share of which in GDP of the country is about 23%. Belinvestbank reported that the cooperation on two programs would give an opportunity by offering customers credit facilities at competitive rates to expand their current activities and to finance foreign trade contracts.
As a part of the Trade Facilitation program the EBRD assumes political and commercial risks, and payments under foreign trade contracts of bank customers.
Provision of financing amounting to 50 million euros is one of the main points of presales of Belinvestbank. In May, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Belinvestbank have signed a memorandum of cooperation, the main point of which is a sale of the bank to a strategic investor before January 1, 2020. Until the end of 2016, a sale of the blocking stake (25% plus one share) of the stakes of the Belarusian state bank to the EBRD should be realized.
We are interested in stepping up our efforts in the chosen field, i.e. we are interested in the open dialogue and expansion of cooperation,” Francis Malige told reporters after the signing of the agreements with Belinvestbank.
The regional director stressed that the EBRD does not have any limitations in the work with the Belarusian private sector.
The EBRD is one of Belarus' major investors. As of 1 June 2015, the bank invested €1.7 billion in the development of more than 70 projects. The majority of them are implemented in the private sector. The bank's program to promote the development of trade stimulates foreign trade in the EBRD countries of operation, including Belarus. Within the framework of this program the EBRD takes over political and commercial risks connected with payments on the foreign trade contracts of its clients
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