25.06.2024 Minister Karadimov: BDB will serve defence companies

The Bulgarian Development Bank is a natural partner for companies in sectors that are strategic for Bulgaria. The newly adopted strategy for the 2024-2026 period envisages that the Bank, whose principal is the Ministry of Innovation and Growth, will provide support for the strategic sectors of the country, including defence and military-industrial complex. This was stated by the Minister of Innovation and Growth, Assoc. Prof. Rosen Karadimov, today during a working meeting with manufacturing companies of the military-industrial complex, including TEREM-HOLDING EAD, Arsenal AD, Vazovski Machine-Building Plants EAD, Optics AD, Samel-90 AD, Arcus AD, etc.

Opportunities for development, support and financing of manufacturers in the sector by BDB, under the Investment Promotion Act (IPA), as well as for financing innovations in the defence industry were presented at the meeting.

Participants were Deputy Ministers of Innovation and Growth, Veselina Mincheva and Prof. Georgi Angelov, Deputy Chairman of BDB's Supervisory Board, Delyana Ivanova, and representatives from both institutions.

‘The Bank can provide adequate services to businesses from the defence industry, which in recent years have had difficulty accessing banking services’, said Delyana Ivanova. BDB's newly adopted strategy and the prepared changes to its Charter allow the Bank to offer banking services and funding to state and private enterprises of the military-industrial complex with no limit to the amount of funding.

BDB has been dealing with and ensuring the settlement of foreign trade transactions of companies in the military-industrial complex for more than 15 years. As a 100% state-owned financial institution, the Bank is an internationally recognized and acceptable partner in issuing letters of credit, guarantees and counter-guarantees.

During the meeting, Deputy Minister Mincheva presented the financial and non-financial measures to encourage investors and the project certification criteria under IPA. Last year, two projects of defence companies were certified under IPA for a total value of just over BGN 26 million, and a project for BGN 5 million is currently under certification, which envisages the creation of 25 jobs.

Deputy Minister Angelov informed about the opportunities that the NATO Innovation Fund and the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) provide for companies in the defence sector. The NATO Fund provides investment in participating countries, with funding of around €1 billion for all countries for a period of 15 years. ‘The aim is to provide support in high-tech start-up and emerging companies that have potential for security and defence applications’, Angelov said. He added that DIANA will focus on high technologies that NATO has identified as priorities: artificial intelligence, big data processing, quantum technologies, autonomy, biotechnology, new materials and space.