Serbian exporters can apply for favourable loans
Agency for Export Insurance and Financing has begun receiving applications from Serbian exporters interested in soft short-term loans worth between €30,000 and €450,000, Director of the Agency Milenko Bogosavljevic announced today.
Annual interest on these loans, with repayment period between three and six months, ranges from three to five percent, Bogosavljevic stressed.
In order to be eligible for the loan programme, applicants must have had exports of at least €1 million
during last year, or had
to conclude
an export deal of such value for the current year, Bogosavljevic said.
Conditions of the loan state that in the planned export deal, the participation of goods of domestic origin must be at least 51 percent, as well as that the company has a positive balance of business operations.
The agency will secure export claims from commercial risks
and the risk of the buyer’s insolvency
in the first phase, Bogosavljevic said and added that in this way, by providing more favourable payment conditions, the competitiveness of Serbian products will be increased.
He said that the agency’s credit potential currently stands at €9 million, while €1 million has been set aside for insurance activities, which is a sufficient sum for providing guarantees for export activities up to €20 million.
This year 716 micro loans for self-employment were approved at a total value of €12.5 million, Serbian Assistant Minister of Finance Goran Andjelic stated. Thanks to these loans, 3,500 people have been employed and that the same amount is envisaged for next year, he added.
According to Andjelic, in order to boost development of Kragujevac, Bor and Vranje, 41 favourable loans have been approved to companies in these cities. Their total value is 500 million dinars and they will be released soon.
Andjelic recalled that two firms from Kragujevac, and one from Bor and Vranje each have already received funds from the loan, and announced that the programme of approving loans for self-employment will be continued and it will probably include some other municipalities. He said that all the applicants who employed more than four workers were approved for the loans.