Wednesday, April 25 2012 17:43
SMEDNC to provide up to 3 mln AMD loans to start-up entrepreneurs
ArmInfo. The Small and Medium Entrepreneurship Development National Centre of Armenia (SMEDNC) will start providing up to 3 mln AMD loans to the start-up entrepreneurs, Chief Executive Officer of SMEDNC Varazdat Karapetyan said at today's event dedicated to the 10th anniversary of SMEDNC. He said that the loans will be provided for 3 years at the interest rate of 8-10% p.a. Nearly 60 new small and medium enterprises will be set up.
In addition, SMEDNC has worked out programs aimed at revealing the problems in the SME sphere of Armenia and discussing them in the Government. Karapetyan recalled that for this purpose the SME Development Council was set up in the Government 4 months ago, and SMEDNC is a member of this Council. This year the Center will focus on providing support to the SME entities, particularly, on creating favorable micro-conditions for their work, as well as on establishing effective cooperation with the local administration.
To note, over 2004-2011 SMEDNC provided loan guarantees worth 1.57 bln AMD to 381 SMEs, thereby ensuring a credit portfolio of 2.9 bln AMD. As of 1 Jan 2012, the total amount of these entities' loan commitments (including interest payments) totaled 3.61 bln AMD. As of 1 Jan 2012, the credit portfolio of SMEDNC amounted to 90.9 mln AMD, particularly, in 2011 11 SMEs received loan guarantees worth 52.1 mln AMD, and the total amount of their loan commitments reached 113.1 mln AMD (including interest payments). Over 2011 SMEDNC satisfied a total of 3780 applications of start-up and operating SMEs. To note, the Fund SMEDNC was established in 2002. It was the first national structure authorized to provide state support to development of small and medium enterprises of Armenia.
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