Russian Vneshtorgbank will lend small and medium-sized businesses $1 billion this year, bank head Andrei Kostin said after a meeting with President Vladimir Putin last week
Published:
22 January 2004 y., Thursday
Russian Vneshtorgbank will lend small and medium-sized businesses $1 billion this year, bank head Andrei Kostin said after a meeting with President Vladimir Putin last week.
No Russian commercial bank currently has a small-business lending program, though there are a few banks that lend to small companies through funds provided by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Putin has called the small-business sector a top priority, but efforts to reform relevant legislation have done little to boost statistics.
Small and medium-sized enterprises account for less than 15 percent of gross domestic product, according to the State Statistics Committee. In the European Union that figure is close to 60 percent. If Vneshtorgbank makes good on its promise to lend out $1 billion, it would constitute the largest investment by a single organization in the direction of small-business reform.
One of the main reasons that the Russian small-business sector has not flourished is because it lacks infrastructure readily available in the West, such as lending institutions, according to a recent study by the World Institute for Development Economic Research, a United Nations-sponsored think tank.
Russia's banks have traditionally catered to small groups of industrialists, living off a lending portfolio of two or three high-volume clients. Lending programs for private individuals and small companies require the creation of an expensive retail network and more personnel for branch offices.
Šaltinis:
themoscowtimes.com
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
The financial and economic crisis has shown that reckless behaviour of banks and other financial institutions can have serious and costly consequences for Europe's economy and its people.
more »
Local services that create jobs and improve energy efficiency received a boost Thursday (2 September) when MEPs on the Industry, Research and Energy Committee approved plans for more investment.
more »
The European Commission approved the first financing decisions under the EUR 264 million 2010 allocation for the so-called Vulnerability FLEX mechanism to help the most vulnerable African, Caribbean and Pacific countries cope with the impact of the global financial crisis and economic downturn.
more »
The European Commission has today updated the list of airlines banned in the European Union to impose an operating ban on one air carrier from Ghana and to place operating restrictions on another air carrier from that country.
more »
The European Commission today approved an application from Denmark for assistance under the European Globalisation adjustment Fund (EGF).
more »
Algirdas Šemeta, EU Commissioner for Taxation, Customs Union, Anti-Fraud and Audit, will open tomorrow an international conference at the Shanghai World Expo 2010 on building bridges to facilitate trade between China and the EU.
more »
Moldova is set to receive an EU grant of up to €90 million to help it through the financial crisis, following a vote at Parliament's Committee on International Trade on Monday.
more »
Important notice: since May 2010 business surveys data are classified in accordance with an updated version of the Nomenclature of Economic Activities (NACE rev. 2) causing a potential break in series at this date.
more »
75% of Europeans think that stronger coordination of economic and financial policies among EU Member States would be effective in fighting the economic crisis, according to the Spring 2010 Eurobarometer, the bi-annual opinion poll organised by the EU.
more »
The European Commission has extended until the end of the year the liquidity support scheme for banks in Slovenia.
more »