May 27 (SeeNews) - Croatian state-owned development bank HBOR said on Friday it has started allocation of financial instruments worth a total of 1.1 billion kuna ($157 million/146 million euro) under the country's Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).
"The goal of the financial instruments that HBOR will implement is to encourage the strengthening of investment activity, but also to enable a successful transition to green and digital technologies as the basis for the future sustainability and competitiveness of the Croatian economy," it said in a press release.
Direct loans under the RRF will be available to start-up entrepreneurs, young entrepreneurs, companies run by women, entrepreneurs investing in mountainous areas and islands and entrepreneurs investing in the commercialisation of research, development and innovation-based projects.
The interest rate for loans to projects that are mostly focused on green or digital transition and commercialisation of research projects will be 0.4% annually, while the interest rate for other investments in competitiveness and resilience will be 0.8%. Loans will be approved without charging the loan application processing fee and without charging the commitment fee, whereas the repayment period will be up to 15 years, which includes the possibility of a grace period of up to 3 years.
The European Commission approved last year a grant of 6.3 billion euro ($7.5 billion) for Croatia under the RRF to help the country emerge stronger from the pandemic.
Croatia's recovery and resilience plan seeks to help expand the national economy by 1.5% in 2021, by 2.5% in each of the next four years, and by 2.9% in 2026, according to estimates by the EC. The overall value of the plan equals 11.6% of Croatia's GDP for 2019.
(1 euro=7.536 kuna)