Slakteris: new offer of the MoF will facilitate availability of financial resources
On Tuesday, February 17, the Government approved amendments to the European Union (EU) fund operational programme “Entrepreneurship and Innovations” to increase availability of financial resources for business development.
The operational programme has been supplemented with two new activities “Guarantees for promotion of business competitiveness” and “Loans for promotion of business competitiveness”. The target group of beneficiaries has been enlarged with big entrepreneurs.
Within the scope of the activity “Guarantees for promotion of business competitiveness” the Latvian Guarantee Agency will grant guarantees to loans issued by commercial banks. The guarantees are planned to cover loans necessary for investments in capital assets (materials and non-materials). The guarantees will be also granted for current assets, factoring and leasing, as well as for implementation of approved EU structural fund projects.
Within the scope of the activity “Loans for promotion of business competitiveness” the Mortgage and Land Bank of Latvia will issue loans to entrepreneurs facing situation when banks consider the entrepreneurs or projects as too risky or when the pledge in not sufficient. The loans will be issued for investments in material and non-material assets to enlarge the range of production with new products or to rearrange fundamentally the existing production process, as well as to implement approved EU fund projects.
As reported, the Minister of Finance Atis Slakteris indicated that financing from the international loan will be granted only according to the budget and legislative framework. One of key incentives already included in the budget is EU funds thus it is important to implement them with strategic responsibility. Determined acquisition of EU funds is also supported as a priority by the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission.
Amendments to the operational programme “Entrepreneurship and Innovations” have been developed on the basis of decisions made by the European Union Structural Funds Steering Committee and Cohesion Fund Steering Committee.
