OREANDA-NEWS. October 19, 2011. SME Bank (Vnesheconombank Group) participated in the meeting of the Council for Assistance to Small and Medium-Sized Business organized by the Secretariat of the Plenipotentiary Envoy of the RF President to the Volga Federal District, reported the press-centre of SME Bank.

The meeting was held in a form of a videoconference. It was attended by officials of the VFD, CEOs of banks and SME infrastructure support entities as well as representatives from the regional offices of OPORA ROSSII (BACKBONE OF RUSSIA).

The participants discussed involvement of the VFD regions in the SME Bank Lending Support Program. The district comprises 20% of Russian SMEs. 62 banks and 54 infrastructure entities are among SME Bank’s partners in the region and over 4 thousand entrepreneurs have received support under the Program.

As a result of the conference the regional agencies responsible for development of small and medium-sized business were authorized to improve interaction with business community, to promote best practices of SMEs involved in the state lending support programs and to intensify relations with the SME Bank under the Program.