Raiffeisenbank is the first Bulgarian Bank, approved by the European Commission (EC) for the grant scheme for financing municipal infrastructure projects with funds provided by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the EU. The contract between Raiffeisenbank and EIB was successfully concluded on January 21st, 2005. The Facility aims at supporting the economic development of the municipalities in the EU accession countries. The grant scheme amounting to 6.5 Million Euro is part of the part of the second Global Loan between Raiffeisenbank and EIB to the amount of 20 Million Euro for financing Small and Medium Enterprises signed in March 2004.

EIB will finance up to 50% of the projects, which total cost should be between 40 000 and 5 Million Euro, and the remaining 50% will be financed with own resources by Raiffeisenbank. The bank will start lending in February 2005 at attractive interest rates. Municipalities, public and private companies financed under the program are eligible to receive grant financing from the funds provided by PHARE and PHARE-Cross-Border Co-operation. The amount of the grant is up to 5% from the total project cost and will be given in tranches according to the implementation of the project.
Under the new grant scheme two main types of projects could be financed . The first type is related to investment projects encompassing the building, up-grading or refurbishing of small municipal infrastructure and implemented on the whole territory of the country. The second relates to small environmental, transport, health and education infrastructure projects in the South-Central and South-Western Regions of Bulgaria.
The parties concerned could receive further information in all the banking outlets of Raiffeisenbank (Bulgaria) EAD in the country and in Sofia on Tel.: 919 85 111 – Nikolay Nikolov and Tel: 919 85 168 – Dobromir Dobrev, Corporate Banking Department.

*Notice: This document has been produced under a Programme receiving the financial assistance of the European Community. The views expressed herein are those of Raiffeisenbank (Bulgaria) EAD and can therefore in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Commission.