MINSK, 9 November (BelTA) – The establishment of a guarantee fund for small and medium private companies will be discussed during the Global Entrepreneurship Week, which will take place in Belarus on 12-18 November, BelTA learned from Olga Shcherbina, head of the International Finance Corporation representative office in Belarus, on 9 November.
According to the source, the International Finance Corporation supports and will continue supporting small business in Belarus via various instruments. “We have loaned a total of about $75 million to Belarusian banks for the sake of financing small and medium enterprises. About $300 million has been made available via trade financing instruments to support export-oriented Belarusian SMEs,” said Olga Shcherbina.
According to the source, Belarus is now home to about 350,000 micro, small, and medium businesses as well as self-employed businessmen. These businesses need financial support among other things, noted Olga Shcherbina. In her words, there are plans to discuss new instruments, which will allow Belarusian SMEs to get access to finance, at a panel session to be held as part of the Global Entrepreneurship Week on 13 November. “In particular, together with the Belarusian Fund for the Financial Support of Entrepreneurship we are going to discuss the establishment of a guarantee fund in Belarus,” said the IFC representative. “Work is now in progress to create such an institution. The first few projects designed to give partial guarantees to small and medium enterprises are already taking shape.” Up-to-date information about the final work on the registry of pledged movable property will also be presented.
BelTA earlier quoted the Economy Ministry as saying there are plans to set up a guarantee fund for small and medium private enterprises in Belarus. In essence the fund's money can be used as security against the loans small businesses take from commercial banks.
