OREANDA-NEWS.  July 16, 2013. Belgazprombank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) signed a new agreement providing the Belarusian bank a USD 10 million credit line for financing micro, small and medium enterprises.

Thus, Belgazprombank and EBRD increase their support for private business through expanding MSME lending programs. This is already the second credit line which EBRD has extended to Belgazprombank this year.

“Support for private business remains a priority direction of the Bank’s activities, – marked Sergey Shaban, the Deputy Chairman of the Board of Belgazprombank. – “Support for this segment allows us to tackle important social and economic challenges on a nationwide scale. A developed and sustainable segment of small and medium-sized enterprises increases employment, promotes business competition, contributes to the faster modernization of the economy and the adoption by businesses of energy efficiency and innovative components, and facilitates the growth of the gross national product.

Belgazprombank started cooperation with EBRD in 1996. Currently it is one of the main partners of this international financial institution in the Republic of Belarus. There is also active cooperation between the two institutions in the framework of the EBRD’s Trade Facilitation Program and the Belarus Sustainable Energy Finance Facility (BelSEFF). The total amount of credit lines extended by EBRD to Belgazprombank within these programs exceeds USD 100 million.

Within its strategy for the Republic of Belarus EBRD focuses on the promotion of private business, MSME financial support, development of sustainable energy.

Belgazprombank, established in 1990 and controlled by Russia’s Gazprom Group, occupies a leading position in lending to the Belarusian private sector, particularly to small and medium enterprises and the retail sector.