Access to finance is among the biggest challenges for doing business in Georgia, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index 2017-2018. To help address this, IFC is providing a USD 10 million loan to Basisbank, a subsidiary of the Hualing Group, one of China’s private enterprise groups, to enable it to on-lend trade-related working capital to Georgia’s exporters and importers.
Basisbank has also signed on as an issuing bank in IFC’s Global Trade Finance Program (GTFP). As part of the deal, IFC will provide the bank with a trade finance guarantee line of USD 2 million, helping it facilitate its clients’ trade transactions and boost cross-border trade.
By supporting a smaller-sized bank, IFC is also expected to foster greater competition among Georgian banks.
Georgia became an IFC member in 1995. Since then, IFC has committed around USD 1.83 billion in long-term financing, including nearly USD 940 million in mobilization, in 59 projects in financial services, agribusiness, manufacturing, and infrastructure. IFC has also supported more than USD 385 million in trade through its trade finance program, and implemented advisory projects to help develop the private sector.
The GTFP supports trade in emerging markets by providing partial or full guarantees for individual trade transactions. It has an international network of more than 500 bank partners in 150 countries, helping SMEs access the global trading system.
Every day we send out a free e-mail with the most important headlines of the last 24 hours.
Subscribe now