At the initiative and invitation of ProCredit Holding, the main shareholder of ProCredit Bank Kosovo, more than 500 businesses from manufacturing and distribution sectors from the countries of the region such as Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Georgia, etc., including 40 businesses from Kosovo, met in Thessaloniki in Greece in a joint regional forum with the sole purpose of establishing new relations and strengthening international business relationships of business clients.
As a group of business-support specialized banks, ProCredit Holding undertook this initiative taking into account the importance of establishing new contacts and partnerships as an essential part of the business development in the region.
“It is exactly this regional meeting that is in the spirit of business support from ProCredit Banks. We have put in place an efficient regional banking infrastructure, which facilitates the cooperation among businesses at the regional level”, Ilir I. Aliu, General Director of ProCredit Bank Kosovo, declared.
On the other hand, Borislav Kostandinov, member of Management Board of ProCredit Holding and Chairperson of Board of Directors of ProCredit Bank Kosovo, declared: “We hope that this forum will be a stability source for our business clients. Our purpose is to facilitate the establishment of close business relations and the identification of business opportunities even beyond borders, so as to enable a successful cooperation in the region and Europe as a whole”.
In addition to such initiatives, concrete steps have been taken also towards facilitating international transfers, with ProCredit Bank Germany being the only correspondent bank for transfers for the whole ProCredit Bank Group, which ensures that the transfers are carried out quickly, effectively and with low prices; these prices are the lowest in the region.
Furthermore, during this forum, the European Investment Fund (EIF), represented by Pier Luigi Gilibert, General Director, and Borislav Konstandinov, ProCredit Holding Management Board member, signed a 20-million-Euro guaranty agreement to support small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) through ProCredit Bank in Greece, which started to provide banking services in November 2015. The bank guaranty is part of the framework of InnovFin – EU finance for innovators, supported by the European Commission.
