The European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Union's long-term lending institution, is providing further EUR 30 million support to the private sector in Croatia, in the form of a global loan (1) to Raiffeisenbank Austria d.d. Zagreb (RBA) - EUR 20 million and Raiffeisen Leasing d.o.o. Zagreb (RL)- EUR 10 million. Subject to demand, this initial split of EIB funds between the two partner financing institutions, can be modified in the future. The EIB funds are for financing small and medium-sized investments in industry, the service sector, infrastructure, as well as health and education projects proposed by both public and private promoters in Croatia. Established in 1994, RBA was the first foreign bank in Croatia.
In this short period of time it developed a wide network in 14 Croatian cities and is today the 3d largest bank in Croatia in terms of assets, capital and profit before tax. RBA is a universal bank, with its principal activity corporate and retail lending. It also offers an extensive range of products via its subsidiary units, including RL. RL established in 1999 to provide leasing finance, both operating and financial, is today in the top 5 Croatian leasing companies. Although this is the first EIB operation with the Raiffeisen group in Croatia, the Raiffeisen Zentralbank Austria (RZB) parent group has a long and well-established relationship with the EIB for similar operations in Austria and Central and East Europe.
With this 4th global loan since 2001, EIB has now made a total of EUR 76 million available to SMES in Croatia, through its local partner banks, encouraging new investment and job-creation
The EIB is a lead player in implementing the European Union's priority objectives. In 2002, EIB financing for projects supporting European Union policy objectives totalled EUR 39.6 billion. EUR 33.4 billion went to projects within the EU Member States and EUR 3.6 billion to those in the Accession Countries, while lending in other countries ran to EUR 2.6 billion. To fund these activities, the EIB borrowed EUR 38 billion on the world's capital markets.
In South-East Europe, the EIB operates under the Mandate for Central and Eastern Europe agreed by the Council of Ministers for 2000 to 2007, which provides for EIB lending of up to EUR 9.28 billion, which complements the EU, as well as EU Member States' own bilateral co-operation policies. To underline its commitment to future post-war reconstruction in the area, the EIB played an active role in the preparation phase of the reconstruction investment programme, in cooperation with the European Commission and the other multilateral financing institutions.
In 2002 in Croatia, the EIB financed a total of 130 million for road and air transport: the construction of the last two sections of the Rijeka-Zagreb motorway (60 million), air traffic services (20 million) and the rehabilitation of the motorway along Pan-European Corridors X and Xa (50 million).
(1) Global loans are available to partner lending institutions, which then on-lend the EIB funds in smaller portions according to the EIB's financing criteria. The funds are targeted primarily towards SMEs in tourism, industry and related services as well as environmental-protection and energy-saving investment schemes, and small to medium -sized infrastructure investments of Local Authorities. The global loans combine the EIB's first rate access to world capital markets, where it raises most of the funds for its lending activity, with the local network and know-how of domestic partner banks.