Today at Latvijas Unibanka an agreement was signed between the European

Bank  for  Reconstruction  and  Development  and  Latvijas  Unibanka on

opening a credit line for funding small and medium-sized enterprises.

The EBRD extended a loan of 10 million euro under the support programme

for  SMEs.  This  lending  programme  was  launched  in  April 1999 via

co-operation  between  the EBRD and the European Commission. Its aim is

to  support  the  growth  of  SMEs  in  central  and  eastern  European

countries.

The co-operation project envisages not only a 10 million euro loan with

a  six-year  maturity,  but  also  EBRD counselling under the long-term

lending  programme and assistance in the field of technical issues, and

staff-training  at  the  start  of  the  programme. These costs will be

covered under the Phare programme of the European Commission