The European Investment Bank (EIB) is providing an intermediated loan of EUR 50 million to Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (BGK) to support projects of small and medium-sized enterprises and local public authorities in Poland.
The EIB loan will finance smaller projects in the areas of industry, environment, energy, health, education and knowledge-based economy and services, involving tourism. Projects to be financed will be promoted by small and medium sized companies and local authorities and they should not exceed total costs of EUR 25 million.
Mrs. Marta Gajęcka, EIB Vice-President responsible for lending in Central and Eastern Europe, including Poland, said: “The EIB funds, provided under favourable terns under difficult market conditions, will improve the access of SMEs, municipalities and other public sector companies to long term finance to increase the productivity and competitive capacity of SMEs and implement priority infrastructure projects”.
Through its credit lines, the EIB finances projects usually implemented by SMEs (with fewer than 250 employees) but also municipalities. To this end, the EIB joins its forces with well established financing institutions, like BGK, that know the local market, have SMEs and municipalities as their customers and have a well developed network. The current loan is a continuation of the successful cooperation between the EIB and BGK. Before, the EIB provided loans to this financial institution amounting to some EUR 1.75 billion.
Background information:
The task of the EIB, the European Union’s bank, is to contribute to the integration, balanced development and economic and social cohesion of the Member States by financing sound investments. Since 1990, the EIB has signed loan contracts in Poland amounting to some EUR 23.5 billion, of which approx. EUR 3.4 billion (including the current loan) has supported SME and municipality projects.