He Argentine Development Bank (BICE) plans to disburse more than $5 billion during 2023 in companies with strategic activities in Cuyo, such as viticulture, food, metal-mechanics and construction.
Thus, the president of the bank announced it, Michael’s Marianduring his visit to the province of Mendoza in which he had a meeting with more than 100 local businessmen and toured the plants of the Fecovita and Victorio Altieri companies.
De Miguel, together with the vice president of the bank, Carla Pitiot, and the director of BICE Trusts, Gabriela Lizana, they met with more than 100 local businessmen and toured the production plants of the Fecovita and Victorio Altieri companies, both with ongoing projects.
“Last year, José Ignacio de Mendiguren, who preceded me in office and today is Secretary of Industry and Productive Development of the Nation, announced credits for $2,000 million for the local productive sectors. Today we can say that we managed to exceed that figure and that this year we want to be above $5,000 million”, De Miguel pointed out.
The head of the bank led a meeting with companies in the region on Tuesday with the aim of presenting the main financing tools of the entity. In that framework, BICE’s technical team highlighted the CreAr Program loans for productive investment projects with a fixed rate of 49%, a term of up to 7 years and a grace period of up to 2 years.
“The strategic economic activities of this region, such as viticulture, food or metal-mechanics, to highlight a few, need financing to invest and grow. Bank loans are a key tool in this regard, especially now that we add the benefits of the Argentine Credit Program (CreAr) implemented by the Ministry of Economy. Today we have approximately $44 billion committed and we have just expanded the quota of this program by $25,000 million more,” added.
For her part, Carla Pitiot remarked: “At BICE, together with the Secretariat of Industry and Productive Development under the responsibility of José Ignacio de Mendiguren and with the leadership of the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, we work to accompany the projects of SMEs that invest , export and create employment in the country”. “Today we toured the industrial plants of two client companies where this is already happening. With policies and tools that promote production, sustainable and inclusive development is possible”.
“The Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, always asks us to strengthen the management so that Argentina develops from within the country, through its productive regions. BICE is a financing tool that underpins that federal perspective, which is why it is a great satisfaction to bring closer the instruments that allow promoting the growth of SMEs in Mendoza and the entire Cuyo region”said Gabriela Lizana.
During the event, the line of credits for the promotion of distributed generation of renewable energy was also presented, which has a subsidized rate by FODIS from the Ministry of Energy and long-term repayment. Likewise, instruments were detailed to promote the export development of Argentine companies, working capital tools for SMEs and leasing lines for the acquisition of capital goods.
With an office located in the center of the city of Mendoza, BICE accompanies all productive activities in the Cuyo region. It focuses especially on the strategic regional economies, such as the wine sector and its production chain; food (olive oil, raisins, nuts, fruit preserves, strawberries, alfajores); metalworking; and construction companies.
More than 95% of the bank’s clients in the region are SMEs. In addition, 70% of the loans are earmarked for productive projects and 20% for financing exports.
Visit to client companies
The activity of the BICE team continued in the afternoon with a tour of two client firms: the Federation of Argentine Wine Cooperatives (Fecovita) and Victorio Altieri.
FECOVITA is an entity made up of 29 wine cooperatives that brings together 5,000 primary producers and has been a client of the bank since 2006. They recently accessed a line to finance their exports for US$2 million and a working capital loan.
Victorio Altieri, for its part, is the largest Argentine and South American manufacturer of overstopper capsules for the wine industry. With a BICE loan for energy efficiency, they are installing 450 solar panels for the generation of photovoltaic energy.
Source: Ambito
