Mumbai:  Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has entered into a loan agreement of JPY 30 billion with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for financing the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Energy Saving Project in India.

The agreement was signed today by Mr. Alok Prasad, Indian Ambassador to Japan and Ms. Sadako Ogato, President, JICA in Tokyo.

The objective of the project is to promote energy saving in the MSMEs in India, by providing financial assistance through SIDBI and through refinance assistance by SIDBI to the banks, State Financial Corporations (SFCs) and Non-Bank Financial Companies (NBFCs) thereby contributing to environmental improvement, sustainable economic development in the country and mitigation of global climate change.

SIDBI has been at the forefront in implementing energy saving investments in the MSMEs in India. The above project is Phase 2 of the MSME Energy Saving Project with JICA. The Phase-1 project with a loan component of JPY 30 billion has been implemented in a record period of around 2 years during 2008-10.