Recognizing tourism as one of the key sectors for sustainable economic growth, the Development Bank of FBiH, with the support of the Federal Ministry of Environment and Tourism, has launched a special interest-free loan program for small and medium-sized enterprises in the tourism sector. This program includes covering the interest rate costs at 2.5% as well as loan processing fees. For the purposes of this loan program, one million convertible marks have been allocated, with the goal of encouraging domestic companies to develop new and improve existing tourism products. This includes increasing accommodation capacities, as one of the responses to the dynamic development of the tourism industry.
The maximum amount of an individual loan will be up to 500,000 KM, with a repayment period of up to eight years and a grace period of up to 12 months. The Federal Ministry of Environment and Tourism will finance the interest rate during the entire repayment period of the loan, as well as the costs of a one-time fee for processing the loan application.
The program is implemented with the support of the US Government, which, through the USAID Developing Sustainable Tourism in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Turizam), seeks to improve access to finance for all tourism businesses. Thanks to this program, all interested companies will be provided with training to develop business plans as well as advisory support in the application process. Also, within the framework of the program, workshops will be held at the end of April and the beginning of May, in Mostar and Sarajevo, as well as other BiH cities, and more information will be known soon.
The goal is to ensure the development of innovative, specialized, and standard tourism products as well as the activation of new tourism products with higher added value. This requires increasing the quality of accommodation capacities and including as many local entrepreneurs and their products/services as possible in the destination value chain.
All interested tourism and hospitality operators for this credit line can obtain more information on the Development Bank’s website or the Online Financial Directory’s website. . Also, all interested parties can directly contact the USAID Tourism project, via email address: mgopohamzic@turizambih.ba
