The European Investment Bank (EIB) is lending EUR 25 million to Société Générale Yugoslav Bank. The funds will be used to provide long-term financing for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and infrastructure investments in Serbia and Montenegro.
The EIB global loan (line of credit) aims at tackling the scarcity of funds for investment needed to sustain development and economic growth in the country. With the funds stemming from the EIB, up to 50% of the eligible project cost may be financed. The term for infrastructure projects is 15 years; loans for SMEs may go up to 12 years.
Société Générale Yugoslav Bank will be able to respond to the long-term needs of SMEs that represent an important source of job creation, and of local authorities, particularly of municipalities, which contribute to raising the living standards of the populations concerned through investments in urban infrastructure.
The EIB was set up in 1958 under the Treaty of Rome to provide loan finance for capital investment furthering European Union policy objectives, in particular regional development, Trans-European Networks of transport, telecommunications and energy, research, development and innovation, environment improvement and protection, health and education. Outside the Union, the EIB contributes to European development co-operation policy in accordance with the terms and conditions laid down in the various agreements linking the Union to some 130 countries in Central, South and Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean region, Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, Asia and Latin America.