The Loan Guarantee Fund for small- and micro-enterprises (SMEs) employing up to 30 people, designed to help them overcome borrowing difficulties by underwriting 40-70 per cent of the credit risk involved, is being launched on 2 February, according to the Development Ministry.
The fund will provide guarantees for bank loans of between Ђ10,000 and Ђ100,000 to SMEs for innovative ventures in tourism, mergers and acquisitions, investment programmes, market research and sales promotion. It will also provide support to special groups of prospective businesspeople, such as the young, women, the long-term unemployed, heads of large families, and immigrants.
The ministry has also announced the launching of a Ђ11.7 million programme designed to help disabled people aged between 21and 55 to launch their own businesses. Plans, which will be budgeted at between Ђ30,000 and Ђ150,000, will be subsidised at a rate of 50 per cent. The deadline for applications is 20 April.
