EU bank supports SMEs in Georgia through DCFTA

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Investment Fund are implementing two new programmes in Georgia which have been developed jointly with the European Commission.

These two programmes were prepared in the context of the Association Agreement (AA) of Georgia with the EU and aim to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (DCFTA).

The first program is the ‘DCFTA Initiative East’, which aims to strengthen economic development in the countries which have signed an association agreement with the EU – namely Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine – by providing financial and technical support targeted at SMEs in these three countries.

The overall objective of this initiative is to support economic growth and generation of employment in the three countries. It will also enhance access to finance in the form of improved lending terms and conditions and provide first loss SME portfolio guarantees, enabling local intermediary banks to take on more risk and reach out to underserved segments of the economy.

Menawhile, the second program ‘InnovFin – EU Finance for Innovators’ is a joint initiative launched by the EIB Group in cooperation with the European Commission under the EU Research and Innovation Programme Horizon 2020.

InnovFin consists of a series of integrated and complementary financing tools and advisory services offered by the EIB Group, covering the entire value chain of research and innovation (R&I) in order to support investments from the smallest to the largest enterprise.