Belarusian enterprises received EU micro credits amounting to more than 100 bln euro

November 18 2010, source: Narodnaya Volya

The program of micro crediting of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) allowed small and medium-sized enterprises in Belarus to attract more that 370 mln Euro during thelast 8 years. This information was disclosed by Olga Tkacheva, coordinator of the program, at the conference "Integration of Belarus into International Micro Financing System", that took place in Minsk.

Despite such a huge amount, Belarus occupies one of the last places in the world rating of microfinancing development. Petr Korinski, Deputy Director of the Centre of Micro Financing in Central and Eastern Europe, noted that our country is one of the last on the list and even behind Mongolia. Microfinancing and leasing is developing rapidly in both Eastern and Western Europe, however, in our country the development has only started.
The program of micro financing development in Belarus for years 2010-2015 that is to be adopted in the near future is supposed to change the situation dramatically. According to Deputy Chairman of the Board of the National Bank Petr Mamanovich, the program will help to solve the issue of self-employment of the population and will also attract additional investment to Belarus.

Experts believe that this program can really play an important role for small and medium business, however, it requires state and banking sector support. Besides the most efficient schemes of targeting financial recourses to Belarusian enterprises to achieve maximum efficiency and minimum risks are to be developed.

For example, one of the problems that prevent active financing of Belarusian enterprises is dependant on their borrowing capacity. “The majority of the banks try not to work with enterprises in case there is even a slightest doubt in the re-payment of credit resources," - stated Anton Andreenko, Director of Avangard Leasing. Therefore, an alternative variant appropriate both for banks and enterprises can be leasing, that is currently the source of the major part of investment in Europe.

"Today everyone understands that leasing is the most transparent and safe financing instrument that guarantees the re-payment of monetary funds," – says Anton Andreenko. – To purchase the equipmentor goods for leasing one requires only 20-30% of its total price and the risks are considerably lower, which means a leasing subject becomes marketable at the secondary market. We are sure of leasing perspectives in Belarus and hope to make our portfolio equal to 30-50 mln USD in the following couple of years.”

The volume of leasing market is to increase considerably during the next years. Foreign investors are already expressing their interest in financing Belarusian leasing operators. For example, a French company named PLANIS is ready to invest own assets and attract the assets of other investors to leasing projects on the territory of Belarus, said regional representative of the company Zinaida Vasilenko. Besides, experts believe, that Belarusian banks are about to increase the financing of leasing companies several times as they consider this scheme the safest one. Anyway, such spheres of activities as microfinancing and leasing are supposed to gain new energy and development in the upcoming 5 years.

The conference "Integration of Belarus into International Micro Financing System" helped more than 120 representatives of national and foreign financial institutions meet in Minsk. Among them were the representatives of the National Bank, UN/UN Development Program, Minsk City Executive Committee, Republic Micro Financial Center (Belarus), National Micro Financial Exchange (Moscow), Mikro Kapital Investment Fund (Luxemburg), PLANIS (France) and Triple Jump (Netherlands), the University of Nebraska (USA), European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), leasing operator AVANGARD LEASING (Belarus), etc.