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<\/p>\nThe ambitious financial expert, Valeriy Mayboroda, attended the Manager Training Programme (MP) 16 years ago. At that time, he was 25 years old and working for the Ukrainian National Bank. He was just starting his professional career, but he had a clear mission: He wanted to study the work done by development banks and then use the knowledge to support the development of small and medium-sized enterprises in Ukraine. Today Mayboroda is the head of the German-Ukrainian Fund (GUF), which runs programmes supporting SMEs.<\/p>\n
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2002 was a historical year for the EU: the issue of the \u201ceuro kits\u201d gave EU citizens their first opportunity to hold actual euro coins. And it was also an important year for the MP: The Manager Training Programme with Ukraine started, and with it the internationalisation of the Programme. Valeriy Mayboroda was among the very first managers to come from Ukraine for training in Germany. An economist, he worked for the Ukrainian National Bank and coordinated the work of the GUF, in which the Ukrainian National Bank, the Ukrainian Ministry of Finance and the KfW (a German government owned development bank) are all shareholders.<\/p>\n
Completely Satisfied with the MP<\/strong> Help for Medium-Sized Enterprises<\/strong> In addition to financial support, the GUF would like to also offer credit guarantees and consultancy services to enterprises in the future, to provide them with holistic assistance on their path to success. \u201cNow that trade has been opened between Ukraine and the EU, it has become easier for German businesses. But our Ukrainian firms don\u2019t have the same general conditions or the same access to financial support. That\u2019s where we have to do some catching up\u201d, says Mayboroda.<\/p>\n MP Graduates Benefit from Financing<\/strong> Financing Programmes to Become More Well-Known<\/strong>
\n\u201cMy expectations of the Programme were met 100 per cent\u201d, says Mayboroda, a foreign trade expert who closely examined the work done by financial institutions and enterprises during his time on the MP. He later shared the knowledge he gained in a working group he joined that drafted a business plan to establish a Ukrainian development bank. Back then, though, the time was simply not ripe for such entities. \u201cUnfortunately, at that time the Ukrainian government wasn\u2019t yet paying much attention to SMEs. Now \u2013 also as a result of the crisis \u2013 it has recognised how important SMEs are for economic development\u201d, says Mayboroda, who is now head of the GUF. The GUF is to be transformed into an agency offering financial support to SMEs within the next few years. A state programme to develop SMEs is planned to start by 2020. The government programme was developed with the support of the EU programme EU4Business.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIn Germany I saw an ideal model of a state financing programme for SMEs\u201d, says Mayboroda. He has been able to implement a lot on the basis of his expertise, even if the business plan per se has had to be shelved for now. Among the new instruments that he has realised is the introduction of interest rate subsidies based on the German model. \u201cIt\u2019s good to invent something new, but it\u2019s even better to adopt something good. We don\u2019t need to develop a Ukrainian bicycle if bicycles already exist\u201d, explains the entrepreneur.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/mp.aleph-consult.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/40_UKR_Mayboroda.png\")
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\nThe GUF has granted more than 162,000 loans in the last 20 years. Some of the now 1,300 graduates of the MP in Ukraine have also been able to benefit from the low interest rates. Like, for instance the shoe maker Oleg Potienko from Browary, a small town close to Kiev. His enterprise Kaman manufactures high-quality shoes, including German and Italian production lines. Potienko used the loan to purchase a new production line and to strengthen his working capital.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cMany entrepreneurs have no confidence in our loan programmes. They think that it\u2019s a fraud or that it won\u2019t work\u201d, says Mayboroda. This is the reason that he has set marketing as the GUF\u2019s priority. \u201cI\u2019m for absolute transparency. Businesses should understand that it\u2019s realistic to receive financial support from us, even though we\u2019re practically a state entity\u201d, he says. He regularly visits the regions and the partner banks, and promotes the GUF at events \u2013 including at the MP. He has also developed a new format: trade fairs for small and medium-sized enterprises (www.sme-fair.org.ua), at which enterprises, banks and financial support institutions can meet. And he publishes a monthly fact sheet with data and figures on the sponsored businesses. \u201cIt used to be that only a few people knew the GUF. Now we\u2019re well-known, and word has got out that we can be trusted\u201d, reports Mayboroda.<\/p>\n