Off the wire
• IS militants execute 40 people in Iraq's Anbar province  • S. Africa not to relax immigration rule: minister  • Mozambican police approves detention of suspect over beer poisoning  • Ukraine pledges decentralization reform by October  • African countries urged to ratify Maritime Labor Convention  • Urgent: Ukraine says group of soldiers captured in flashpoint town  • China-Kenya bilateral trade in 2014 rises 53 pct  • Juncker appoints special adviser on European defense, security policy  • FLASH: MULTIPLE EXPLOSIONS, GUN SHOTS HIT OPPOSITION RALLY IN SOUTHERN NIGERIA  • Pakistani army chief in Kabul for security talks: military  
You are here: 　 Home

EIB announces investment Plan for SME financing

Xinhua, February 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

The European Investment Bank (EIB) announced Tuesday the first batch of funds for small- and medium-sized (SME) businesses across Europe from the new European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the European Commission said in a statement.

The landmark decision taken by the EIB will allow for the pre-financing of SME projects linked to the Investment Plan for Europe before the summer.

Money can be made available to SMEs by the European Investment Fund (EIF), part of the EIB-Group, which will cover the risk of transactions with intermediaries providing additional finance to SMEs and small mid-caps until the main EFSI is in place, by September at the latest.

European Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen, responsible for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness said: "This is a great day for European small businesses. This news from the EIB means that by the summer, cash-starved SMEs and innovative mid-caps across Europe could be benefiting from an injection of badly-needed capital."

Due to the economic and financial crisis, the level of investment in the EU has dropped by about 15 percent since its peak in 2007. Financial liquidity exists in the corporate sector.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker made the Investment Plan for Europe his first priority.

The creation of a new EFSI, guaranteed with public money, was to mobilize at least 315 billion euros (about 392.08 billion U.S. dollars) of additional investment over the next three years from 2015 to 2017. Enditem