Women in Business receives support in Croatia

In Zagreb, a Women in Business conference for all female entrepreneurs has been hosted this week thanks to recent support from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. After opening the event, EBRD’s Regional Director for Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia, and the Slovak Republic, Vedrana Jelusic Kasic, said ‘Women in Business is a flagship programme for us and since its launch in Croatia in 2015 we have seen great progress.’

Furthermore, remarks were also made by Ambassador David Yung-Lo Lin, who represents the Taipei Representative Office in the United Kingdom, and Croatia’s Deputy Minister of Finance, Sasa Drezgic. All in all, over 100 people turned up to the event and were able to follow various panel discussions. Funded by the EBRD, the Women in Business programme has been helping small- and medium-sized businesses led by women to access much-needed finance as well as advice from professionals within the industry - this includes mentoring, training, and opportunities to network. As well as the EBRD, the programme is also funded by the EBRD Shareholder Special Fund and the Taiwan Business - EBRD Technical Cooperation Fund.

In addition to the funding from the EBRD, there are also Taiwanese funds that go towards creating partnerships between Taiwanese and Croatian businesses. For female entrepreneurs, there is a business matching trip planned for 2017 which will see around 20 businesswomen meet up with their Taiwanese counterparts in order to network and discuss various factors of business.

After being launched back in March 2015, around €15 million has been spent on the two financial institutes of Raiffeisenbank Austria d.d. Zagreb and Privredna Banka Zagreb d.d. which has gone towards lending to SMEs that are led by women. Over time, more banks are expected to join the cause with one major name expected by the end of 2016. With this in mind, nearly 300 women have been helped by the scheme in total.

Over €3.54 billion has crossed the wires between the EBRD and Croatia since the very first project in 1994, this has been spread over nearly 190 different projects. Even though the bank has tried to cover all bases, it seems as though infrastructure has been a large focus as well as financial institutions and energy sectors. Currently, the Women in Business schemes can be found in 16 countries with over half a billion euros of financing being made available to SMEs led by women. Additionally, there is also €60 million that has been enabled for over 10,000 women in donor funding for support.

Since the beginning of the nineties, there has been donor support from Taiwan with a particular focus on information technology, sustainable management, business advice for SMEs, Women in Business schemes, and intelligent transport systems.

Image Provided by: © Andrejat | Dreamstime.com - Early Morning In The City, Zagreb, Croatia Photo