NFES continues beneficial lending to business

The National Fund for Entrepreneurship Support (NFES) under the Ministry of Economic Development (MED) of Azerbaijan issued 75 per cent of its total funding for beneficial lending purposes in the regions during 2011, the ministry said on Friday. The remaining 25 per cent of the funding accounts for urban development projects in Baku.

The fund, established in 1992, sent 138 million manat to finance 1643investment projects in 2011. Some 25 per cent of the loans were financed by funds allocated from the budget, while 75 per cent were due to the return of previous loans. The implementation of these investment projects helped to create 6500 new jobs.

In 2011, NFES provided soft loans totalling 5.9 million manat for 162 homeless people. It also sent 118 million manat to build 85 plants based on the use of new technology in 2011 and 33 manufacturing, processing and infrastructure businesses that were also granted loans, will be commissioned in 2012 along with another 96 firms.

Generally, the NFES has issued about 720 million manat ($915.56 million) to more than 12.5 thousand entrepreneurs over the period. It has helped open up 95,000 new work places.


/Trend/