Maras Presents Microcredit Programs

Microcredits for liquidity and Microcrediting – the first step into entrepreneurship, two programs of the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Crafts for 2014, were presented today, and their goal is to assist the smallest entities, micro-subjects that bear the heaviest economic burdens.

As emphasized by the Minister of Entrepreneurship and Crafts Gordan Maras, the liquidity microcredit program is intended for micro-subjects with up to ten employees, the public call to banks will be until the end of this year, and the public call to entrepreneurs in January 2014.

The maximum loan amount is 50,000 kuna, the repayment period is 4 years, the expected interest rate offered by banks is 6 percent, of which the ministry would subsidize 5 percent, so the expected interest rate for entrepreneurs would be 0.99 percent, with a 50 percent guarantee from Hamag Invest for each of the loans.

These loans would be used by micro-entrepreneurs who need working capital, who have problems paying suppliers or collecting their receivables, said Maras.

He is confident that the loans will generate interest and expects that 7,000 interested entrepreneurs and craftsmen will apply for the competition, which means that around 350 million kuna will be invested in the liquidity of micro-companies through commercial banks over the next year, and the proposed budget amount is 16 million kuna for interest subsidies.

The Microcredits – the first step into entrepreneurship program is also going this year, it has sparked great interest among users, and it is intended for investments in fixed and working capital.

In the Hamag Invest budget, 5 million kuna is planned for these loans for 2014, the maximum loan amount is 70,000 kuna, the fixed interest rate is 0.99 percent per annum, and the repayment period is up to five years including a grace period of six months.

Regarding further activities of Hamag, further growth in the issuance of guarantees and encouragement of investments in small and medium-sized enterprises is expected, said Maras, noting that they expect 500 issued guarantees (365 issued so far), and nearly two billion kuna in investments achieved through Hamag.

The intention of these credit programs is to provide craftsmen and entrepreneurs with cheap funds to continue their business and to avoid the risk of being blocked due to minimal amounts of debt (5, 10, or 15 thousand kuna), regardless of whom they owe, suppliers or the state.

He stated that they will continue to insist on timely payment deadlines, as it often happens that small businesses have problems because they cannot collect their receivables from large ones.

In response to a journalist’s question about how he comments on the abandonment of state borrowing on the American market, Maras said that this is a question for Finance Minister Slavko Linić.