On 8 December, 2015 Belgazprombank and Development Bank of the Republic of Belarus signed the agreement on the mutual financing of startup companies.
The development of the individual product aimed at the supporting of newly created organizations and newly registered individual entrepreneurs was started in July of the current year in order to facilitate the business activity of entrepreneurs and contribute to the creation of new competitive companies in the Republic of Belarus.
All general conditions of the Development Bank's program for the support of small and medium enterprises form the basis of this new product.
In the framework of this product the following businesses are referred to as startups:
Newly created organizations or newly registered individual entrepreneurs engaged in business for less than one year from the date of their registration;
Legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, whose one year registration is expired, though they haven’t performed any financial and economic activities.
The principal advantage of the new product is the cost of financing provided. For the final borrower it comes to a half refinancing rate + 4.5 percentage points, i.e. today it is 17 percent per annum in Belarusian rubles. The possibility to attract financing at the rate approximate to the inflation level in the Republic of Belarus is expected to become a good impulse for the development of new highly effective and competitive companies.
Belgazprombank established in 1990 and controlled by Russia’s Gazprom Group, occupies a leading position in Belarus in lending to the private sector of the Belarusian economy, particularly, to small and medium enterprises, as well as in retail lending. The Bank has regularly become the winner in the contest «The best entrepreneur» in the nomination «Best bank for entrepreneurs».
Development Bank of the Republic of Belarus is a specialized financial institution founded by the Council of Ministers and the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus. The main objective of the Development Bank is elaboration of financing system for government programs and credit support of the Belarusian export.
The program for support of small and medium enterprises was launched by Development Bank in August 2014. Two-tier financial mechanism of the program suggests that Development Bank allocates resources to partner banks which signed respective agreements for the implementation by small and medium enterprises of investment projects. Currently 11 banks are included in the program.