The Minister of Finance, Sinisa Mali, stated today that there is no delay in the realization of the agreement from Washington.
Mali said that by the end of January, he will sign an agreement with the American International Finance Corporation (DFC) for financial support to small and medium enterprises of about 1.1 billion dollars.
Mali told Tanjug that he expects the guarantee scheme of lending to DFC to come to life in the spring.
“About a billion to 1.1 billion dollars is the total value of the guarantee scheme of loans and direct support to small and medium enterprises in Serbia. I expect the realization of the guarantee scheme to begin in the spring,” said the Minister of Finance.
We are in daily contact with DFC, adds Mali. “It was more up to them than to us because of the elections in the USA, because the process is a little late, but at the moment we already have the entire financing structure on the table, that is, the guarantee scheme provided by DFC,” he said.
He reminds that our state, as an aid to the Serbian economy due to the impact of the pandemic, provided a guarantee scheme of crediting worth two billion euros, which is part of a large aid package of almost six billion euros, and that this scheme proved extremely useful for companies. It has provided liquidity for working capital, Mali points out and adds that out of the planned two billion euros, almost 1.3 or 1.4 billion euros have already been spent.
“We will certainly extend this guarantee scheme until the middle of next year, and in parallel with that, the DFC guarantee scheme will start, so that our economy will have continuous support on that issue,” Mali emphasized.
He notes that it is about guaranteeing the state for loans that companies take from commercial banks. He reminds that he recently signed the last document that was necessary for financing and the beginning of the construction of the highway Nis – Merdare – Pristina, which is one of the projects envisaged by the agreement from Washington. This enabled, he points out, that the construction of the first section from Nis to Plocnik in the length of about 33 kilometers will begin in the spring, B92 reports.
