Turkey

Four years ago the share of loans taken by SME's was around 7 percent of all loans extended by Fortis Bank. 'The situation has now changed dramatically' says Metin Karabiber, assistant general manager of Fortis Bank's department for SMEs.

The European Union has launched the second phase of its Small Enterprise Loan Program (SELP), which provides loans to support the smallest of SMEs. Enterprises with fewer than 50 employees and less than 1m in assets may directly apply to bank branches located in 49 Turkish provinces.

The World Bank approved on Thursday to extend a US$600m export finance intermediation loan in a bid to help Turkish exporting firms expand capacity and improve competitiveness.

Turkey's Sekerbank has received a loan of US$10m from Wachovia Bank to support its efforts to create a funding source for SMEs and micro-enterprises.

The Turkish Economy Bank (TEB) in late April began distributing 40m from the French Development Agency (AFD) in the form of low-cost loans to small and medium-sized enterprises.

A senior World Bank executive said on Monday that the next year or the coming two years might pose some difficulties for Turkey.

Factoring in Turkey is booming - Garanti Factoring based at the centre of the industry give the outlook for this year.

German state-owned development bank KfW has said it would give 90m in loans to SMEs in Turkey via Turkish banks.

Atradius, aims to conquer 30% of the Turkish credit insurance market in the future.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has indicated that loans provided by Halkbank to merchants and artisans will be increased.