OREANDA-NEWS. December 15, 2011. State Corporation ‘Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs (Vnesheconombank)’ and the Agency for Investment Development of the Republic of Tatarstan approved a Plan of Joint Actions on Cooperating in Supporting Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs).

A signing ceremony was held in the presence of Tatarstan’s President Rustam Minnikhanov on the territory of Khimgrad technopark (the city of Kazan) as part of a conference on working out general standards for creating and managing industrial technoparks and formulating special programs of supporting SMEs.

On behalf of Vnesheconombank the Document was signed by Board Member –Vnesheconombank Deputy Chairman Mikhail Kopeikin and on behalf of the Agency for Investment Development of the Republic of Tatarstan – by Linar Yakulov.

This project’s implementation would help to expand access of SMEs and innovation infrastructure facilities – clusters (technoparks, science parks, innovation-technological centers, business-incubators etc) to financial resources as well as to develop mechanisms for supporting SMEs involved in clusters’ production chains.

In the course of the conference a credit agreement was signed between OJS SME Bank (a member of Vnesheconombank Group) and the Investment Venture Fund of the Republic of Tatarstan. The agreement aims not only to increase the amount of resources intended for supporting the SME innovation sector of the Republic but also to participate in investment funds to be created with the participation of the Investment Venture Fund and ensure access to international practices of funding innovation projects.

In attendance of the conference were representatives of Vnesheconombank, the Russian Ministry of Economic Development, the All-Russian Non-governmental Organization Delovaya Rossia and others.