In 2004, the Gegharkunik Chamber of Commerce and Industry has established the “Successful Start” Fund with a starting capital of US$ 12,000 to provide Start-up micro-interest loans for new small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in all the Armenian Provinces (Marzes) and Artsakh.  The amount was provided by the German Association for International Cooperation (GIZ – formerly GTZ) Program of ProSME (GTZ/PEM), which boosted its assistance by a further contribution of US$ 12,000 in 2010.

The loans are provided for a maximum period of 24 months and do not exceed the amount of US$ 2,000, thereby covering up to 60% of the individual business project proposal’s financial needs. The timeline for paying-off the loans is flexible according to each individual business plan’s schedule/capacity of cash flow. Returned amounts are reutilized for funding new start-up enterprises. 

In order to increase the Effectiveness, the Reachability and the Instrumentality of the “Successful Start Fund”, the Vienna Consortium for Development Initiatives (VCDI) – a non-profit Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that has been founded in 2008 - is joining efforts with the GCCI and launching a fund collection campaign, which will mainly focus the financing of the attached list of planned business project proposals.