26 June 2018
As part of the 4th Western Balkans
Purchasing Initiative held in Frankfurt, Germany on Tuesday, 19 June 2018, more
than 500 B2B meetings took place between German buyers and potential suppliers
from the Western Balkan countries “We welcome this initiative, as it provides
new business opportunities for SMEs in the countries in which we operate. This
was our third time partnering with this event, because its intention matches
our commitment to the region and our strategy of fostering growth in the
SME sector in South Eastern and Eastern Europe”, commented Borislav Kostadinov,
member of the management of ProCredit Holding AG & Co. KGaA.
This year, companies from the entire region came to
Frankfurt to take part in the networking event. Suppliers from Croatia,
Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro and
Macedonia were selected, evaluated and invited to B2B meetings at the Frankfurt
Chamber of Commerce (IHK). According to the BME, the Bundesverband
Materialwirtschaft, Einkauf und Logistik e.V. (Association for Supply Chain
Management, Procurement and Logistics), 125 companies met the requirements of
German buyers in 2016; last year it was 135 companies. This year, as many as
156 companies from the Western Balkan region were approved for matchmaking. “This
is the largest number of B2B meetings that the BME and the network of German
Chambers of Commerce have ever organised with the Western Balkans,” said Dr.
Silvius Grobosch, Managing Director of the BME, “The Initiative gives both
the countries in this region and the German economy many competitive
advantages,” he stated in a press release published by the BME on 19 June 2018.
The project was initiated in 2014 as part of the
Western Balkans Conference of Ministers for Economic Affairs. The first
conference was launched in Munich in 2015. After Dortmund (2016) and Belgrade
(2017), the 4th Western Balkans Purchasing Initiative was once again
held in Germany this year. It was organised by the BME on behalf of the
Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ –
Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development) and in cooperation
with the Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie (BMWi – Federal Ministry
of Economics and Energy) as well as the DIHK (German Chamber of Commerce and
Trade). The event was hosted by the IHK in Frankfurt and supported by ProCredit
Holding, the parent company of the ProCredit banks, which are predominantly
active in South Eastern and Eastern Europe, including the Western Balkan
countries of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia. “As
of the end of March 2018, around 45% of our assets came from our five banks in
the Western Balkans. Obviously, the region is important for us,” Mr. Kostadinov
added.
About ProCredit Holding
ProCredit Holding AG & Co. KGaA, based in
Frankfurt am Main, Germany, is the parent company of the development-oriented
ProCredit group, which consists of banks for small and medium enterprises
(SMEs) and whose operational focus is on South-Eastern and Eastern Europe. In
addition to this regional focus, the ProCredit group is also active in South
America and Germany. The company’s shares are traded on the Prime Standard
segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The anchor shareholders of ProCredit
Holding AG & Co. KGaA include the strategic investors Zeitinger Invest and
ProCredit Staff Invest (comprising the investment vehicles for ProCredit
staff), the Dutch DOEN Participaties, KfW Development Bank and IFC (part of the
World Bank Group). As the group’s superordinated company according to the
German Banking Act, ProCredit Holding AG & Co. KGaA is supervised on a
consolidated level by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority
(Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht, BaFin) and the German Bundesbank.
More information can be found on the company’s website at www.procredit-holding.com.
About ProCredit Bank BiH
ProCredit Bank was the first international bank established in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina which economy was recovering with difficulties. It was 1997 when the ProCredit Group saw an opportunity for development and sent over its experts who, following an analysis of the new market, offered a solution in the form of a small business financing. Over the years, the Bank has specialized itself in the SME financing as the actual generators of the development of economy that operate regularly, settle their liabilities in time, make additional employments, improve the quality of life in the community, export goods, etc. ProCredit Bank today operates with strong, stable and renowned BiH companies.
ProCredit Bank has been making enormous efforts for years to provide for those companies an access to the funds they need to improve their businesses, offering to its clients an access to credit lines with rather low interest rates and guarantee lines with substantially reduced security coverage requirements. The Bank has offered a long term financing through credit/guarantee lines funded by the European Union, World Bank, and USAID. Moreover, to stimulate export, ProCredit Bank offers to domestic businesses best prices for international payments, especially for payments to sister-banks within the ProCredit Group, of EUR 2.5 per transaction.
ProCredit Bank BiH is part of the ProCredit Group headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany. ProCredit Holding, the ProCredit Group’s parent company, holds an absolute ownership of the Bank. Shareholders of ProCredit Holding include strategic investors, Zeitinger Invest and ProCredit Staff Invest, and renowned names such as that of DOEN foundation, KfW and IFC (part of Word Bank Group).