The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the private sector arm of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) will launch a $120 million fund to support small businesses in the southern and eastern Mediterranean region.

The fund is part of the first agreement between the EBRD and the Jeddah-based Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) to help develop small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia.

The fund will extend financing to SMEs using equity and quasi-equity structures, with the two institutions contributing capital to the fund and seeking additional institutional investors and donors, a statement by the ICD said.

The EBRD has been expanding its role to Arab nations since the region's uprisings in 2011.-TradeArabia News Service