OREANDA-NEWS. October 7, 2011. As part of the Working Group on Cooperation in the Financial Sector of the Joint Russian-Austrian Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation Vnesheconombank held a workshop “Sharing Experience in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Banking”.

The welcoming addresses were given by the co-chairmen of the Working Group: from the Russian side – by Vnesheconombank’s Financial Institutions Departments Director Alexander Zelenov, from the Austrian side by Director of Oesterreichische Kontrolbank AG Ferdinand Schipfer.

In attendance of the workshop were representative of the Russian and Austrian financial institutions involved in supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Taking into account a significant share of SMEs in Austria’s economy and its substantial contribution to forming the country’s GDP and Austrian banks’ extensive practice in providing support for the SME sector, the theme of the workshop is of great interest to Russian banks. Representatives of the largest Austrian banks shared their experience. They included UniCreidit Bank Austria AG, Raiffeisen Bank International AG, Oberbank AG, specialized financial institution Austria Wirtschaftsservice GmbH as well as a subsidiary bank of VTB Group – VTB Bank (Austria) AG.

From the Russian side Vnesheconombank’s SME Promotion Department Director Alexei Eskindarov and representatives of OJSC SME-Bank and partner banks (OJSC UniCredit Bank, Bank Vozrozhdenie, the Asian-Pacific Bank) told about the practice of funding SMEs.