The second phase of the FIT4SMEs Project (www.fit4smes.net),managed by Informest and co-financed by the Autonomous Region Friuli Venezia Giulia and the Central European Initiative (CEI) through the Know-How Exchange Programme- KEP, started in October 2011, foresees in the following weeks a series of trainings offered to BSOs of the 9 non-EU CEI Member States (Albania, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Moldavia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Ukraine) in the field of financial facilities provided by international financial institutions for small and medium enterprises.

The meetings will be held in three different East European capitals (Tirana, Belgrade and Kyiv), and foresee a technical programme of knowledge transfer in the field of financial facilities provided by European Bank for Recostruction and Development-EBRD, European Investment Bank-EIB and the World Bank Group-WB. In such a way as to improve the local BSOs capacity to provide a complete and qualitative assistance to SMEs on access to financial facilities.

The trainings are managed by Informest, with the collaboration of ICE and the contribution and presentation of practical case from the bank sector operators.

Each training has a one and half day duration, during which will be dealt with issues related to theory and practice and successful analysis in the field of financial assistance to SMEs by EBRD, EIB and the World Bank Group.

The first appointment in Tirana on March 15 and 16, 2012, will see the participation of  EU Tirana Delegation Representative, Representatives of the Albanian Ministries of economy, trade and energy, of innovation and technological communication, of CEI and of Italian Embassy in Tirana.

This first training foresees a presentation of general informations on EBRD, EIB and the World Bank Group, and their financial facilities provided for SMEs. A further closer examination will be carried forward in respect to the presentations made at the International Conference held in Trieste (April 2011).

Then it will follow the procedure for providing financing (search for finance, conditions, submission for an application, etc.) and the related technical assistance to SMEs after the financial assignment. The training offering also includes an analysis of successful case-studies realized in these countries, to be presented by East European bank executives, while a practical session will allow to BSOs an approach to the applying for a facility financial support.