In Kazakhstan under EBRD's program of supporting small enterprises more than $350 mn were given in a form of loans for the past five years

/Kazakhstan today, October 6, 03/ - In Kazakhstan under EBRD's program of supporting small enterprises, for the past five years more than 60 ths borrowers received loans in amount of more than $350 mn. David Hexter, the Vise- President of EBRD, informed about this fact during joint press conference with representatives of banks of the RK today, on October 6, 2003 in Almaty. In addition, according to his information, more than 70% of all loans were lent for amount less than $5 th. The smallest loan amounted to only $40.Also, Mr. Hexter highlighted low rate of credit defaults under this program. Thus, out of 27 ths of loans only 122 are doubtful. "The importance of the program lies in the fact, that it encourages the diversification of Kazakhstan economy", - Mr. Hexter stated. The Vice-Chairman of the National Bank of the RK, Anvar Saidenov highlighted good results that were achieved in the course of program realization in the Republic. Among those, he mentioned a training of a large number of loan officers (1200), and the introduction of high international standards of lending in Kazakhstan. The Director of the Group for Small Businesses of EBRD, Elizabeth Wallace assessed Kazakhstan program as "the most successful" among similar programs, carried out by this financial institution in the rest 26 countries of the world. According to her, during recent years more than 4 th borrowers were given loans every month. EBRD plans to raise this figure up to 10 thousand. Also in 2004 it plans to lend 70 thousand of loans as a minimum and increase the number of loan distribution centers from 150 to 300 under this program. In Kazakhstan the program is being realized in cooperation with 7 commercial banks. They are Kazkommerts, Halyk, ATF, Temir, TuranAlem, CentreCredit and Tsesna. As managing director of Kazkommertsbank said, at present time the bank releases every 5th loan under this program. The advantage of lending funds under this program is the reduced time of approving a loan at competitive interest rate, as well as in that they are given on the basis of analysis of client's activities rather than the existence of collateral. Timur Isatayev, the Chairman of ATFBank, added that thanks to the program, more than 50 ths new jobs were created. The EBRD's program of crediting of small enterprises in cooperation with the government of the Republic of Kazakhstan was initiated in 1998 with the purpose of encouraging SME development. [2003-10-06]