Constantin Niţă, the minister of SMEs: Bankers, cut your interest rates!

Andreea Arăboaei

It"s time for banks to reassess their stance on SMEs and to cut their interest rates, now that the agreement with the IMF has been signed, the Minister of SMEs, Constantin Niţă, said yesterday, at the opening of the Fair for Small and Medium Enterprises - TIMM 2009.

Mr. Niţă said that banks should be more flexible when it comes to rescheduling debt and the interest for loans taken on by SMEs, to get into the real economy and adapt to it, because no small or medium enterprise can resist on the market when paying 20-25% interest rate on its loans.

"I hope that banks participating in this fair (ed. note: TIMM 2009) will get to know the situation in the real economy better and will reconsider their stance on funding SMEs," the minister said.

At the same fair, the chairman of the Senate, Mircea Geoană, said that banks have the duty to cut interest rates and resume lending, now that the agreement with the IMF has been signed.

Mr. Geoană said: "The agreement with the IMF should stimulate banks to offer better lending conditions for Romanian companies".

TIMM 2009 is part of the event "The European week for SMEs in Romania", which will last five days and take place in several counties.

According to the minister of SMEs, 160 production and services companies attended the fair.

During this event, the Ministry of SMEs, Trade and Business (MIMMCMA) called for projects eligible for the EUR 196 million available in the form of grants for the year 2009. Maria Pârcălăbescu, Secretary of State in the Ministry of SMEs, said that the call for smaller projects for the year 2009 will be continuously open, meaning the projects will be reviewed upon their submission with the Ministry, and for larger investment projects SMEs have 30 days to submit their projects. Mrs. Pârcălăbescu also reminded that, based on Emergency Ordinance 29, SMEs can receive up to 35% of the amount requested, in advance. In order to guarantee this preliminary funding, companies will require a letter of guarantee from the National Guarantee Fund.

Also during this event, the Ministry launched the trade portal, a website containing useful information about foreign trade, which allows exporters to focus their activity and to help in ellaborating their strategies for gaining new markets.