TEHRAN – The governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has announced that one quadrillion rials (about $23.8 billion) is going to be allocated for providing working capital to the country’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 21).

In an Instagram post on Monday, Abdolnaser Hemmati mentioned the central bank's program to support SMEs in the current year, saying: "Banks will offer this amount to provide working capital to these units [SMEs], with the aim of expanding their role in the country's production and employment."

The official made the announcement following the Leader’s remarks on Sunday in which he stressed the need for supporting SMEs alongside the country’s large-scale production complexes in order to create more job opportunities and boost the economy.

“Small and medium-sized enterprises are recognized today as one of the main axes of sustainable growth and development in many countries; high added value, innovation, employment, and flexibility are some of the benefits of these enterprises,” Hemmati said.

According to the official, the central bank has been following a serious plan to increase the financing of SMEs over the past few years.

“Last year, about 850 trillion rials (about $20.2 billion) of facilities were provided to more than 27,000 small and medium-sized units across the country, which was 57 percent more compared to the preceding year,” he said.

In early July last year, CBI instructed the country’s banking network the regulations on financing SMEs with the aim of smoothing the path of national production and supporting enterprises in order to fulfill the slogan of the previous calendar year which was “Surge in Production”, through directing society's liquidity to productive sectors and financing domestic production units, as well as providing the required working capital for the enterprises.

The aforesaid instructions offer more and more support for small and medium-sized production units in order to provide the possibility of optimal and correct leading of available financial resources in order to improve the employment situation and economic growth in the country, the central bank wrote on its website at the time.

EF/MA