Wednesday, September 14 2011 19:51

SMEDNC increases loan guarantees of small and medium enterprises to 15 mln AMD


ArmInfo. The Small and Medium Entrepreneurship Development National Center Fund (SMEDNC) has increased the amount of loan guarantees to 15 mln AMD, SMEDNC CEO Tigran Harutyunyan said at today's press conference. He said that earlier the loan guarantees provided to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) amounted to 10 mln AMD, which did not exceed 70% of the credit liability. The maximum period of lending to SMEs has been increased from 3 to 5 years.

"The changes in the program of loan guarantees have been introduced with due regard for the results of the public opinion poll among 300 entrepreneurs in the marzes of Armenia", Harutyunyan said. He added that over Jan-Aug 2011 SMEDNC satisfied 13 applications for loan guarantees for start-up projects in the marzes of the country. Their total amount made up 28 mln AMD. The credit portfolio of SMEDNC is currently about 40 mln AMD.

SMEDNC's credit guarantees program is carried out through the agency of eight partner banks: ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank, Anelik Bank, Ardshininvestbank, Unibank, INECOBANK, Armswissbank, Armbusinessbank and VTB Bank Armenia. In Jan-June 2011 SMEDNC offered assistance to 1,987 start-up and operating companies. Besides loans and credit guarantees, SMEDNC provided advising on how to promote products and introduce modern technologies. 84.6% of the assistance was provided in the regions, the rest - in Yerevan.

According to SMEDNC, in 2010 the share of SMEs in Armenia's GDP made up 43% against 42.5% in 2009, with the shares in the exports and the imports being 17.9% and 26.4%, respectively. Calculated according to the UN methodology, the SME development index in Armenia in 2010 made up 441.8 - 7.6 times higher than in 2002. According to the same calculations, 97% of companies in Armenia are SMEs.

Established in 2002, SMEDNC is the first national agency empowered to provide governmental assistance to SMEs. It has branches in all of Armenia's marzes.
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