March 1 (SeeNews) - Montenegro's government approved the signing of a 70 million euro ($79.5 million) guarantee agreement with the European Investment Fund (EIF) for the establishment of a guarantee fund in the country, the director of the Investment and Development Fund of Montenegro (IRF), Zoran Vukcevic, said.
"The purpose of these funds is to provide a new instrument for supporting the development of entrepreneurship, primarily those entrepreneurs who have the potential to open new jobs," Vukcevic said, as quoted in a statement by the Montenegrin government on Thursday.
"With this instrument, we will support the entrepreneurs who do not have the potential to pledge a collateral covering 100% of the borrowing, allowing them to provide a collateral of 50%," Vukcevic said in a video file posted on the website of Montenegro's government.
The EIF is part of the European Investment Bank group. Its central mission is to support Europe's micro, small and medium-sized businesses by helping them to access finance. EIF designs and develops venture and growth capital, guarantees and microfinance instruments which specifically target this market segment.
In July 2018, the EIB approved a 150 million euro loan to the Investment and Development Fund of Montenegro (IRF), to be used to support local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs),
($ = 0.8803 euro)