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EBRD, EU team with Banka Koper to assist Slovenian SMEs
€5 million loan is second to Slovene bank under EU/EBRD SME Finance Facility
The EBRD is lending €5 million to Banka Koper, a top-tier Slovene bank, to support the country's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The European Union is providing €800,000 to cover the costs of staff training, technical assistance and other incentives.
The loan is being provided through the EU/EBRD SME Finance Facility, a programme of the European Community in cooperation with the EBRD to facilitate the access to finance of small and medium-sized enterprises and to promote SME growth and development.
Rogers LeBaron, the EBRD's Director for Financial Institutions, said the Bank is pleased to work with the EU to support the development and growth of this important sector in Slovenia, and particularly to be providing further support to Bank Koper in its SME financing efforts.
As Mr. Dario Radešic, Director for Commercial Operations at Banka Koper, puts it: "Traditionally strong ties between Banka Koper and SMEs have become even more productive thanks to the versatile financing the EBRD has provided for the second time. With the date of accession to the EU set for spring 2004, Slovenian entrepreneurs are faced with challenges and opportunities and Banka Koper will stand by them".
Banka Koper, a fast-growing universal bank with its headquarters in the coastal town of Koper, granted 113 loans to SMEs under a similar facility signed in 2000. Under that facility Banka Koper focused its attention on the smaller end of the small-enterprise market, with an average loan size of €50,000.
The EBRD has extended a total of €355 million in loans to 25 financial intermediaries throughout the EU candidate countries. More than 10,000 small businesses have received financing under the Facility to date.
In April 1999, the EBRD and the EC under the Phare Programme launched the EU/EBRD SME Finance Facility for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. Operating in 10 EU accession countries of central and eastern Europe, the facility aims to encourage the growth and development of SMEs by facilitating their access to bank loans, leasing and equity finance from local commercial banks.
The Phare Programme is currently the main channel for the European Union's finance and technical cooperation with the candidate countries of central and eastern Europe. The budget earmarked for the Phare Programme as a whole is about €1.5 billion a year.
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