EU ready to allocate €6 mln for Belarus small and medium-sized enterprises development
The European Union will allocate €6 mln for the development of small and medium-sized businesses in Belarus within the next four years.
As the EBRD Small Business Initiative has yielded good results, the EU plans to continue its participation [in the programme], Andrea Wiktorin, Head of the EU Delegation to Belarus, has stated at Thursday’s press conference to mark five years of work of EBRD’s Small Business Support team in our country.
The EU, one of the main partners of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, continues to support Belarus’s small and medium businesses with its help, the top diplomat stressed. According to her, the planning stage is in progress now.
“But we would like to support the innovative fledgling companies, small enterprises. We are also going to support women who are engaged in business. A very good project “Women in Business” has been launched this year,” Andrea Wiktorin told news agency BelTA when asked which project the bloc is ready to finance.
“The EU is actually about to allocate € 6 million to support SMEs in Belarus. Companies are experiencing strategic swings. The program help them to find experts and consultants,” Anton Usov, EBRD Senior Adviser for Eastern Europe and the Cuacasus, told Belsat.eu.
However, entrepreneurs have to pay the services of experts to pay entrepreneurs themselves. Then, if an upbeat assessment is given to a company’s performance, it may ask for compensation amounting to €10,000 (and even up to €60,000 if big and expensive projects are involved).
EBRD’s Small Business Support Team marked 5 years of its work in Belarus, the agency’s press service said on Twitter. The Team’s activity resulted in establishing 250 enterprises and creating 1,500 jobs.
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