India and World Bank today signed the Loan and Guarantee Agreement of Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Financing and Development Project which aims at creating a more enabling environment for SME financing by banks; helping banks gain better access to longer term financing for lending to the SME sector; mitigating risks associated with SME lending, reducing transactions costs of such lending and enhancing the quality of SME loan portfolio; and strengthening business development services and market linkage programs for SMEs and help them to improve profitability and competitiveness, and become creditworthy.
The total cost of the project is US $ 179.4 million which includes US $ 120 million from IBRD, US $ 11.4 million as counter part funding of SIDBI and the balance US $ 49 million as grant support from bilaterals and SECO Trust fund. The basic components of the Project are Credit Facility, Risk Sharing Facility and Technical Assistance Component.
The agreement was signed here by Dr. R. Bannerji, Joint Secretary (FB), Ministry of Finance, Mr. Michael F. Carter, Country Director, World Bank and Shri N. Balasubramanian, Chairman & Managing Director, SIDBI.
BSC/BY/GN-16/5
(Release ID :6555)