Roemenië leent 34 mln euro voor kleinschalige investeringsprojecten (en)
The European Investment Bank provides a EUR 34 million Global Loan to BRD - Groupe Société Générale S.A. (BRD) to finance projects of small and medium-scale enterprises in Romania.
The global loan will be used for financing of small- and medium-scale projects in the fields of energy, energy savings, infrastructure, environmental protection, knowledge-based economy, industry, services and tourism. The loan will provide EIB funds for the development of a competitive SME sector in Romania that is considered as a tool for gradual reduction of economic disparities and differences in levels of GDP per capita between the individual regions.
The EIB has already signed three loans with the BRD before: one global loan amounting to EUR 27 million that has been fully allocated mainly to projects fostering development of SMEs and two loans (EUR 17 mil and EUR 6 mil) financing the BRD Group's modernisation programme.
The BRD benefits under the signed global loan from the SME Finance Facility, a special scheme promoted by the European Commission under Phare Program. It provides the partner bank with an incentive in the form of a specific contribution to further develop lending to the SME sector in Romania.
The Global Loans represent special credit lines to selected partner banks operating in the individual countries. This financial scheme is used by the EIB to finance small and medium-size projects with a total investment higher than EUR 40000 and less than EUR 25 million. EIB partner banks - like the BRD - on-lend EIB funds under their own management, at their own risk and own conditions but providing benefits to the promoters of the respective projects due to the advantage arising from EIB's loan. Interested investors should address the intermediaries directly.
Since 1990, the EIB has provided loans to Romania amounting to almost EUR 3.3 billion so far for projects fostering the country's integration into the EU and helping to meet EU accession criteria so the country could join the EU as envisaged in 2007. Up to now, the Bank has signed seven global loan facilities for a total amount of EUR 166 million with six partner banks in Romania.
Background
Generally, in the new Member States of Central and Eastern Europe and Accession Countries (Romania and Bulgaria), the EIB has lent more than EUR 26 billion to projects since 1990. Therefore, the EIB is the most important external source of finance for Central and Eastern Europe.
The task of the EIB, the European Union's financing institution, is to contribute towards the integration, balanced development and economic and social cohesion of the Member States by financing sound investment. Outside the Union, the EIB supports investment projects fostering EU integration of Accession Countries (Romania and Bulgaria) as well as European development aid and cooperation policies.
For further particulars, please contact Mr Dusan Ondreji?ka,
d.ondrejicka@eib.org tel.:+352-4379-3150 or visit our web site: http://www.eib.org