Tuesday, February 7 2012 18:12
Over 2004-2011 SMEDNC Fund provided SMEs with credit guarantees worth almost 2 bln AMD
ArmInfo. Over 2004-2011 the "Small and Medium Entrepreneurship Development National Center" Fund (SMEDNC) provided 381 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with credit guarantees worth 1.57 bln AMD. SMEDNC told ArmInfo that the relevant credit portfolio ensured 2.9 bln AMD. As of 1 Jan 2012, the total amount of credit instruments (including interest payments) of the given SMEs made up 3.61 bln AMD.
According to the source, over 2011 the credit portfolio the SMEDNC Fund amounted to 90.9 mln AMD. In particular, over 2011 a total of 11 SMEs received credit guarantees worth 52.1 mln AMD, and the total amount of their credit instruments made up 113.1 mln AMD (including interest payments).
The average annual interest rate for loans under the SMEDNC program is 15%, the average amount of the loan - 8.2 mln AMD, the average amount of the credit guarantee - 4.7 mln AMD. The credit guarantees were provided via 4 partner banks of SMEDNC - Ardshininvestbank, INECOBANK, Armbusinessbank and VTB Bank (Armenia).
Over 2011 SMEDNC satisfied a total of 3780 applications of the start-up and existing SMEs. Advisory support was provided on 3588 applications; start-up private entrepreneurs received support on 95 applications; on 47 applications support was provided to export of commodities and services; on 22 applications the enterprises received support within the frames of European Network of Enterprises; on 17 applications start-up businessmen received financial support, and applications credit guarantees were provided.
The major part of the support was provided to the regional representatives of SMEs, mostly in the borderline villages - 88.7% (3352 applications were satisfied); in Yerevan a total of 428 applications (11.3%) were satisfied. In Aragatsotn region 640 applications were satisfied by SMEDNC, in Lori region - 483 applications, in Kotayk region - 476 applications and in Vayots Dzor - 398 applications.
In 2011 the SMEDNC mostly supported the small and medium enterprises in the production sector (37.2%), trade sector (31.4%), sphere of services (28.3%), while the support to the construction sector made up 3.1%.
To note, SMEDNC Fund was established in 2002. It is the first national structure authorized to provide state support to small and medium enterprises in Armenia.