In addition, ETEAN has, since last October, been
implementing a guarantee programme for the
issuance of letters of guarantee, with the aim of:
1. supporting businesses, through the use of
bank letters of guarantee to their suppliers, in
order to ensure the flow of goods and services
without the use of capital; and
2. supporting the economy without requiring the
use of capital, thus releasing liquidity that can
be channelled to other financing purposes.
The initial budget of the programme stands at
€
45
million, while the guarantee coverage rate amounts
to 50%. In other words, the total value of the letters
of guarantee cannot exceed
€
90 million.
Eligible letters of guarantee include bid guarantees,
performance guarantees and payment guarantees,
as well as advance payment guarantees for state
aids issued in favour of enterprises under state aid
programs which are addressed to public authorities
managing and implementing state aid programmes.
Meanwhile, the Ministries of Finance and
Development signed a joint ministerial decision
approving the establishment of an “Island Loan
Fund”, which will be endowed with
€
80 million.
According to this decision, the Fund is estab-
lished in order to cover “the need to provide
immediate support to small businesses located
on [Greek] islands and operating in the tourism
sector, which, as a result of the prolonged eco-
nomic crisis, have neither access to bank loans,
nor can cope with usual bank interest rates or the
interest rates of the existing financing tools, and
in order to make the, necessary for their prepara-
tion ahead of the upcoming tourist seasons,
small-scale investment expenses, and/or mainte-
nance expenses, and/or raw material procure-
ment expenses, and/or other working capital
expenses related to the preparation or develop-
ment of their activity ahead of the tourist season”.
Finally, the European Investment Bank’s pro-
gramme for the enhancement of Greece’s exports
is of great economic, as well as symbolic, impor-
tance, given that Greece is the first country where
this programme is being implemented. According
to the programme, the EIB will provide commer-
cial banks with guarantees of
€
500 million, in
order to finance the Greek enterprises’ interna-
tional trade transactions, effective from this April.
It is estimated that these guarantees will support
an annual volume of transactions amounting to
€
1.5 billion, since these guarantees will be
revolving.
Trade with Greece
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