OREANDA-NEWS. November 22, 2011. Russian Agricultural Bank and the Government of Penza Region signed Cooperation Agreement on Implementation of the Federal Program on Agribusiness Development 2008-2012, reported the press-centre of RusAg.

The agreement is aimed at promoting sustainable development of the Region, creating favorable conditions for the agribusiness development, achievement of the financial stability and modernization of farms and households by increasing the availability of credit resources, development of the system of agricultural credit consumer cooperatives in the Region.

In the course of Agreement implementation the Bank will increase the amount of lending to the agribusiness of the Region. RusAg will extend investment loans for the implementation of regional lending programs on the development of priority agribusiness subsectors, for technical and technological modernization, and will provide further increase in agricultural outputs.

Russian Agricultural Bank also intends to develop the infrastructure of Penza Region, introducing ATMs, POS terminals, payment cards system in order to bring banking services directly to agricultural producers. Also, the Bank will expand and improve the range of loan products that provide credit support to the various forms of activity in rural areas, not related directly to production and processing of agricultural goods: trade, folk arts and crafts.

The Government of the Penza Region, in turn, will provide funding for the State Program implementation from the regional budget, consider the possibility of guarantees to ensure the proper performance of obligations of agricultural producers, to promote the establishment of security arrangements — guarantee and collateral (property) funds.