Signing loan agreements worth a total of 19 million euro will be on the agenda of Thomas Mirow, the newly-appointed head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) during his first visit to Western Balkans on September 1-3 2008, the bank said in a statement.

Mirow will visit Serbia and follow up with a trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Belgrade he will meet government officials, business partners and international envoys, as well as sign a 10 million euro loan to RZB Leasing to finance the expansion and growth of small and medium-sized enterprises in all regions of Serbia.

In Sarajevo, Mirow will sign a three-million-euro loan to micro-credit organisation MI Bospo and a six-million-euro loan to local agribusiness firm Bimal.

The Bank signed its first project in Serbia in 2001 and has to date invested almost 1.3 billion euro in 105 projects in the country. In Bosnia-Herzegovina, total investments are 762 million euro in 69 projects.

The EBRD is the largest institutional investor in the region, having given loans of more than 4.9 billion euro in sectors including infrastructure, energy, the financial sector and the private corporate sector, especially small and medium-sized enterprises.