OREANDA-NEWS. Vnesheconombank together with Germany’s state development bank KfW held its regular conference. The conference “Financing Innovation – Closing the Funding Gap” was devoted to financing innovation programs of small and medium-sized enterprises.

Vnesheconombank Deputy Chairman - Member of the Board Mikhail Kopeikin participated in the conference: “Together with Vnesheconombank’s long-time and reliable partner we are addressing a task which is of primary importance for our development institutions. This task is aimed at long-time financing of small and medium-sized enterprises’ projects in innovations and modernization. Since 2009 Vnesheconombank has raised 400 million euros from KfW which were used to fund SME sector.

The conference’s participants, namely, representatives of authorities and business, SME supporting institutions and the banking community studied Russian and foreign experience in providing financial support for SMEs, practical issues of participating in the programs aimed at supporting innovative SMEs, new joint initiatives of Vnesheconombank and KfW.

Since 2010, Vnesheconombank and KfW have held joint conferences twice a year. Each conference deals with topical issues of funding Russia’s SME sector as well as results of joint Russian-German programs of supporting SMEs. A conference “Providing Support for SMEs in Baltic States: Financing, Public Private Partnership, Innovations” was held in Kaliningrad. And a conference “Prospects for Enhancing Financing of SMEs in the Current Economic Conditions” was held in Kazan.