Women Entrepreneurs Receive Credit Line

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Raiffeisenbank Austria (RBA) signed an agreement on a credit line for women entrepreneurs on Friday.

EBRD will provide RBA with a loan of up to 20 million euros from which loans will be allocated to domestic small and medium-sized enterprises, with a quarter of that amount designated exclusively for companies led by women, it was stated at the “Deloitte SheXO Club – Women in the Business World” conference, during which the agreement was signed.

The purpose of the loan is to encourage women entrepreneurs to participate in the domestic economy and create conditions for their successful business operations, said EBRD Director for Croatia Vedrana Jelušić Kašić. In addition to financial support under the Women in Business program, EBRD also provides advisory services, she added. According to her, the plan is to cover at least 200 women entrepreneurs in Croatia with the program, and provide advisory services to between 160 and 200.

– Women represent a significant potential. For example, in the United Kingdom during the crisis, from 2008 to 2011, women entrepreneurs accounted for 80 percent of all new self-employed individuals. Research has also shown that women are more willing to collaborate with research institutions, more inclined to launch new products on the market earlier, and start businesses with one-third less financial resources than men, said Jelušić Kašić.

The head of the EBRD SBS regional office for Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Montenegro, Natalia Meylunas, said that in Croatia, women are still not adequately represented in economic activities and that there is still much room for improvement.

– The gap is narrowing; however, looking at relative data, there are 10 percent more unemployed women than men, there are twice as fewer companies owned by women, and they are also less represented in management positions, she said.

At the conference, the results of a Deloitte study on the status of women in ten EU member states were presented, showing that companies that support diversity achieve better results. However, it was emphasized that not all companies are sufficiently active in promoting and establishing gender equality, and that the economic reasons for employing women as well as investing in their career development are very important.