BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 7
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
Bank of Georgia has signed a 60-million euros loan guarantee agreement with European Investment Bank (EIB) Group supported by the InnovFin small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) guarantee facility, Trend reports referring to Georgian media.
The InnovFin Guarantee covers 50 percent of every loan disbursed by the bank under the guarantee and targets small and medium-sized enterprises and mid-caps that require investment and working capital to finance research, development and innovation activities. Furthermore, as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Guarantee also covers 80 percent of loans provided by the bank to SMEs and mid-caps impacted by the crisis for their working capital needs.
"I am delighted to see that Bank of Georgia and EIB Group's successful cooperation under the InnovFin guarantee facility, which will increase the Bank's capacity to offer financial services to Georgian SMEs and mid-caps [enterprises with up to 499 employees] that invest in research and development, and digitalization, and are innovation-oriented. Instruments like the InnovFin Guarantee are crucial for the modernization of the country's businesses and the approximation of their standards to best practices in Europe," said Bank of Georgia CEO Archil Gachechiladze.
"The EU bank's financing aims to increase the quality of life of Georgian people and to build a more innovative and greener economy that is strongly connected to the EU. Addressing the economic well-being of smaller innovative businesses is a key element of the EIB Group's response to the COVID-19 crisis. This operation is enabled jointly by the EIB Group and a well-established partner - Bank of Georgia," noted EIB Vice-President responsible for the EU bank's operations in Georgia Lilyana Pavlova.
"Small and medium-sized businesses are key to Georgia's economic development, and many of them have been hit hard by the COVID-19 crisis. We are very happy that the European Union, via our bank, has been able to facilitate further access to finance to help them overcome current challenges and to innovate and develop for the future," said EU Ambassador to Georgia Carl Hartzell.
InnovFin SME Guarantee is a guarantee or counter-guarantee on debt financing that the European Investment Fund provides to financial intermediaries in order to improve access to finance for innovative SMEs and Small Mid-caps.
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