
Poland's Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego will provide Moldova with a EUR 5 million loan to support the development of small and medium-sized enterprises.
This is stipulated by the corresponding loan agreement, the signing of which was approved by the Moldovan Cabinet of Ministers. This is an agreement between the Moldovan government and Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego from Poland to support the development of small and medium-sized enterprises through the Organization for Entrepreneurship Development (ODA). It was signed by the Minister of Economic Development and Digitalization, Dumitru Alaiba. The agreement is supported by a grant from the European Commission to subsidize the interest on the loan and another EU grant of EUR1 million to provide technical assistance for the implementation of the agreement. The final goal of the agreement is for the Moldovan authorities to attract long-term financial resources to the Organization for Entrepreneurship Development (ODA) to finance investment projects of enterprises at low prices. The financial assistance will go to the Fund for Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth (FACEM) to facilitate access of small and medium-sized enterprises to concessional and long-term financing with below-market interest rates. The draft agreement stipulates that Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (BGK) will provide Moldova with a EUR 5 million loan for 7 years, including a 12-month grace period on the loan (principal amount). The loan will be disbursed in two tranches of EUR 2 million (in Q1 2024) and EUR 3 million (in Q2 2024), respectively. The fixed interest rate for Moldova will be 0.5% per annum; the remaining part of the interest (within the contractual rate) will be paid by the European Commission from the grant approved for BGK for this purpose. The loan will be provided to the Ministry of Finance, which will later make these funds available to ODA/FACEM for re-lending to beneficiaries through participating financial institutions. The agreement does not involve expenditures from the state budget. The credit risk will be borne by the participating financial organizations. // 06.12.2023 - InfoMarket.