S&T Country Report - Albania - WBC-INCO Net

In its future activities, priorities of the Fund will be the following:
- Financing of SMEs investment projects (focus is on growing micro enterprises
and SMEs), which is in accordance with the Government’s policy and
Economic Reforms Agenda;
- Support of agriculture projects and food production;
- Support of tourism projects;
- Short-term support of SMEs;
- Full appreciation of regional component in development of the Republic of
Montenegro (the priority in financing will be given to projects from northern
part of the Republic); and
- Financing the infrastructure and ecology projects (public companies, local
government and private companies).
As indicated in the Business Policy 2007 (Development Fund of the Republic of
Montenegro), in the period 2002 - November 2006, through the continuous
competition of the Development Fund, a total of 301 projects of SME’s have been
financed, with the pre-calculated value of EUR 118,4 million, whereas the
participation of the Fund was EUR 21,46 million. With the implementation of these
projects there have been 2.254 new jobs created. The credit assets were placed
through the commercial banks, at the interest rates of 5-10% annually, repayment
period of 4 years and grace period of 12 - 18 months.
According to the Ljiljana Belada (May 2007), financial support to the SME sector
provided by the Directorate for Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
(SMEDA) in the period 2002 - November 2006, was provided through the
development projects:
- “Increasing the competitive capacity of local enterprises”
- “Youth in business”
- “Incentives for entrepreneurship“
The programme envisaged the unification of financial support through the banking
sector, in cooperation with the Employment Agency, SMEDA and the Development
Fund. The basic purpose of this programme is to enable SMEs and entrepreneurs to
obtain, under more favourable conditions than in commercial banks, the credit funds,
in order to be able to operate in a stable manner, increase the pace of their growth
and development, employ new workers and thus contribute to the overall economic
development of Montenegro.
- Diaspora Fund
The project of the Diaspora Fund involves preparation of the program of business
cooperation with the Montenegrin Diaspora, which will be based on mutual economic
interest and creation of favourable conditions for return of the immigrants, and for the
economic development of Montenegro through new investments, as well as for the
involvement of the Montenegrin Diaspora in the economic activities in Montenegro.
The founders of the Diaspora Fund are the Government of Montenegro - Directorate
for development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and the bank (Crnogorska
Komercijalna Banka) with equal participation in the structure of assets of the Fund.
Operations of the Fund are planned and based on the principle of credit provision,
page 10/MNE