February 7 (BTA) - The Bulgarian
Development Bank (BDB) will support hotel and restaurant owners
with low-interest loans, BDB Executive Director Vladimir
Georgiev said on Monday. Georgiev and the Chairman of the
parliamentary Tourism Committee, Ilin Dimitrov, presented a
40-million-leva programme for support to the sector during a
meeting with tourist business representatives from the Northern
Black Sea area in the Golden Sands resort near Varna.

Georgiev said the aim is to make the loans as affordable as
possible and to design them in such a way so as to cover as many
 opportunities and needs of the sector as possible. Under the
programme, hotel owners will be able to apply for loans of up to
 750,000 leva, and restaurateurs, for loans of up to 500,000
leva. The grace periods will be 18 months and 12 months,
respectively. The interest will depend on the borrower's credit
rating.

Georgiev noted that the new management of BDB will work towards
shifting the focus of support to small and medium-sized
businesses. Before the appointment of BDB's current board of
directors it was found that nearly 80 per cent of the bank's
loan portfolio, or about two billion leva, had gone in the hands
 of a few big borrowers. RY/ZH

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