April 3 (SeeNews) - The European Investment Bank (EIB) wants to mobilise 400 million euro ($432 million) in financing to back efforts by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Serbia to get past the coronavirus crisis, an EIB official said.
"We have guarantees for banks which we hope will mobilise 400 million euro more for SMEs, which will be used for supporting their liquidity and working capital," the EIB head for the Western Balkans region, Dubravka Negre, said during a video conference broadcast live on the YouTube channel of Serbia's managers association on Thursday.
Moreover, the EIB has 200 million euro of unspent financing for the healthcare sector in Serbia, Negre said.
"It will become very flexible and if the government wishes, they will be invested in those measures which are now the most urgent in the fight against this crisis," the EIB official said.
The EIB plans to approve next week a financial package of more than 1 billion euro to support the public and banking sectors, as well as SMEs in non-EU member states, including the countries in the Western Balkans, Negre noted.
"We will continue monitoring the situation to know what is most important for the market and we will coordinate our moves with the government and the Serbian central bank, the Chamber of Commerce and the banks' association," she added.
Earlier this week, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said Serbia's government plans to provide 700 million euro in aid to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to limit the adverse economic consequences of the coronavirus outbreak. The government will pay the minimum monthly salary to every employee of an MSME in Serbia for a period of three months, Vucic said.
($ = 0.925698 euro)