TIRANA (Albania), May 2 (SeeNews) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said it is inviting expression of interest to assist with the implementation and monitoring of a competitiveness support programme for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Western Balkans.
“The assignment is expected to start in August 2018 and have an estimated overall duration of 64 months,” the EBRD said in a statement on Tuesday.
The purpose of the programme is to increase the capability of SMEs in Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia) to access and face competition on the European Union (EU) market, by supporting the implementation of the EU standards at the SME level in the field of environmental protection, occupational health and safety and product quality and safety.
The estimated cost of the assignment is 8 million euro ($9.6 million), exclusive of VAT, and it is expected to be funded by the EU through the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA), according to the statement.
The programme is expected to finance a significant amount of green economy technologies, the EBRD said.
“A general problem for investments of this nature is a lack of awareness by SMEs of the applicable regulations and compliance standards, coupled with limitations of access to suitable medium/long term financing.”
The EBRD is planning to provide financing of up to 200 million euro to participating financial institutions in the Western Balkans for on-lending to SMEs for eligible investments aiming to overcome the various barriers to investments in green economy technology.
($ = 0.83120 euro)