Spanish Government Finalizes New Measures To Help Small and Medium-sized Businesses
Written by Allan on November 12th, 2008The Spanish Government is finalizing new measures to alleviate the financial problems which small and medium-sized companies are currently facing. Ministers are analysing ways which would allow those businesses to use the Official Credit Institute in order to obtain the necessary liquidity to carry out their daily activities. The move was confirmed by the Minister for the Economy, Pedro Solbes, after a lunch meeting with representatives from the family-owned businesses organization.
Sources told the Cadena Ser radio station that finance for small and medium-sized businesses is currently a prime objective of the Government which, in a meeting at the Moncloa Palace with representatives from several political, social and economic groups, stated that the means to achieve that finance was through the Official Credit Institute. The same sources confirmed that the Government was studying several different, possible strategies :
The one which seems most likely to be implemented is to establish the OCI as a bridge between finance companies and the small and medium-sized businesses, something which has been already requested by the business owners organizations and the trade unions through other channels. Another option would be to extend the current credit facilities of the OCI which amount to less than 8,000 million euros at the moment, Solbes Confirms.
The Economy Minister, Pedro Solbes, confirmed the news reported by Cadena Ser that the government is studying new ways of helping small and medium-sized businesses :
“We are trying to implement specific measures in order to make finance available. In the case of the small and medium-sized businesses, we are considering trying to do the same as we are doing with the government-subsidized housing scheme, this time through the OCI and we are continuing to work along those lines.”
That way, the OCI would not be converted into a nationalized bank – an option which Pedro Solbes has publicly ruled out on several occasions – neither would it be limited to merely financing specific projects as was the case until now, but it would provide money to cover day-to-day expenses such as wage payments.
President Rodriguez Zapatero is greatly concerned with the latest unemployment figures which he links directly to the situation of small and medium-sized businesses which currently do not have access to credit and consequently find themselves obliged to make workers redundant or even close the company. In a press conference after a Ministerial Council meeting last Saturday, the President indicated his interest in extending aid packages to the small and medium-sized business community.