European Investment Bank provides 100 million euro for Czech SMEs
Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Czech Republic will receive 100 million euro from the European Investment Bank (EIB) for financing small and medium scale projects in the fields of industry, tourism, environmental protection, energy saving, health, education and infrastructure. The EIB has granted the global loan, which is the largest EIB global loan ever granted to a bank in the Czech Republic, to HVB Bank. The bank will use the funds to finance projects with total investment ranging from 40,000 euro to 25 million euro with durations of four years or more. 'For 40 years we have worked closely with selected banks inside the EU to bring EIB finance to smaller scale projects in the present Member States. As many of these banks are now present in the accession countries, we systematically cooperate with them for channelling similarly advantageous funds to SMEs and local authorities also in the accession countries,' said EIB vice president Wolfgang Roth. This loan is part of the EIB's strategy to substantially increase its support for SMEs and smaller scale infrastructure in candidate countries. It brings the total amount of EIB financing in the form of global loans since last July in the candidate countries to 318 million euro.