March 13 (SeeNews) - The European Union (EU) has provided additional funding of 2.2 million euro ($2.5 million) to back a programme of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) supporting Serbian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), a Serbian government official said on Wednesday.
"I want to thank the European Union for accepting the initiative launched by the Ministry of Economy and securing 2.2 million euro in financing through this programme," the state secretary at the economy mMinistry, Milun Trivunac, said, as quoted in a statement by the ministry.
Thanks to new funding from the European Union and with the support of Serbia’s economy ministry, more SMEs will be able to benefit from EBRD advisory support via the "EU for Serbia – EBRD SME Support Programme", as well as local consultants who will receive training to deliver support to such businesses, the bank said in a separate statement on Wednesday.
The EBRD has provided support to about 900 Serbian SMEs since the launch of the programme in 2001, Zsuzsanna Hargitai, regional EBRD director for the Western Balkans, said. "With the support, SMEs have increased their turnover and the number of employees, which helped them to attract more investment."
To date, the bank has supported 235 projects in Serbia with a cumulative investment of 5.107 billion euro.
($ = 0.8839 euro)