JEREMIE Support Fund

That the Parliament notes the announcement of the Welsh Assembly Government on 24 April 2009 of a new £150 million fund through Finance Wales that will support the expansion of more than 800 businesses and create up to 15,000 jobs across Wales, using £75 million of funding from the European Investment Bank under the European Union’s Joint European Resources for Micro to Medium Enterprises (JEREMIE) initiative and a further £60 million from the Welsh Assembly Government via European Regional Development Fund resources; recognises that the funding, the first JEREMIE fund to be launched in the United Kingdom, will enable Finance Wales plc, a commercial funding provider to small and medium-sized businesses in Wales, owned by the Welsh Assembly Government, to make debt and equity investments in growing businesses throughout Wales; further notes that the recently announced Scottish Investment Bank combines existing equity finance support in Scotland to high growth businesses but regrets that it does not provide debt lending and support for small businesses, and further regrets that the Scottish Government has so far not acted on requests made by the Liberal Democrats in October 2008 for a JEREMIE support fund to be delivered in Scotland to help businesses secure debt lending during the recession and that, while the Welsh Assembly Government has acted to deliver a debt lending product to small and medium-sized businesses, so far the Scottish Government is merely considering it.