October 16 (SeeNews) - The European Investment Bank (EIB) said on Tuesday it was lending 40 million euro ($56.6 million) to the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development, HBOR, to help finance small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and municipalities in the Adriatic country.
"EIB is lending 40 million euro to HBOR to finance indirectly smaller projects of Croatian SMEs and municipalities in the areas of the environmental protection, energy savings, infrastructure, industry and services, including tourism," the lender said in a statement.
The current loan is the second one extended by the EIB to the Croatian state-owned bank. The first loan deal totalling 10 million euro was signed in 2001. It has been used to finance six SME projects. Since 2001 the bank has provided 1.3 billion euro to various projects in Croatia.
The EIB (www.eib.org) has said it would invest some 300 million euro annually in Croatia to finance projects that aim to help the country meet European Union accession criteria. The Adriatic country of 4.4 million people started EU accession talks in October 2005 and hopes to join the union by the end of the decade.
HBOR (www.hbor.hr) is the only development and export financing bank in Croatia. It was set up in 1992 to lend to local businesses directly or through the nation's commercial banks.
($ = 0.7069 euro)