The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) will provide a USD 6 million SME loan facility to the Development and Investments Corporation of Armenia (DICA) for on-lending to domestic small and medium-sized companies.

The loan will enable DICA to offer the much-needed financing for SMEs’ capital expenditures and working capital needs, thus ensuring their business continuity and mitigating the impact of the Covid-19 on the Armenian economy.

The BSTDB loan is the first-ever direct financing that the Development and Investments Corporation of Armenia receives from an International Financial Institution.

“We are happy to continue our support for the SME sector development in Armenia, now in partnership with DICA, an Armenian state entity. Providing small businesses with the tools they need to become more competitive and grow is vital for the sustainable development of the Armenian economy. Access to funding is crucial for SMEs to sustain their business and jobs amid the pandemic”, said Dmitry Pankin, BSTDB President.

“We highly appreciate the first cooperation of DICA with BSTDB and hope it will be continuous. This attraction from BSTDB will be allocated in small and medium enterprises, ensuring business growth, satisfying capital expenditure and working capital needs and continuity in the conditions of the epidemic period, mitigating the impact of its negative consequences on the Armenian economy. The financing of the Armenian SME sector through loans from international financial organizations is always in the focus of DICA”, said Arthur Badalyan, Executive Director of The Development and Investments Corporation of Armenia.

Currently the total amount of the BSTDB’s assistance to the SME sector development in Armenia through local financial institutions exceeds EUR 100 million.   

The Development and Investments Corporation of Armenia (DICA), was founded in 2009 as a universal credit organization, used as a vehicle to finance Armenian SMEs and certain investment projects and facilitate the development of Armenian economy. 100% of DICA shares are owned by the Government of Republic of Armenia through the Investment Support Center (ISC - 50.9%) and the Ministry of Finance (49.1%). Aiming to develop and strengthen public-private partnership, the Corporation has assumed the role of a special intermediary in the RA financial market, financing the real sector of the economy. DICA is one of the participants in the financial system of the Republic of Armenia, controlled by the Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia. For information about DICA, visit www.dica.am.

The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) is an international financial institution established by Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine. The BSTDB headquarters are in Thessaloniki, Greece. BSTDB supports economic development and regional cooperation by providing loans, credit lines, equity and guarantees for projects and trade financing in the public and private sectors in its member countries. The authorized capital of the Bank is EUR 3.45 billion. BSTDB is rated long-term “A-” by Standard and Poor’s, “A2” by Moody’s and “A+” by the Russian credit rating agency ACRA. For information on BSTDB, visit www.bstdb.org.