The Ministry of Economic Development and Technology has contributed around EUR 11m and the rest came from SID Bank.

"We target companies which are developing or introducing technological innovation," Economy Minister Zdravko Počivalšek told the press on Friday, stressing innovation was key to economic development.

He estimated that ten projects would be supported, and explained that a company getting a loan from the fund would be able to combine it with European grants.

"We've prepared three calls for applications over the past three years for research, development and innovation. These were grants supporting projects from the prototype to the market. With the fund set up today, we'll enable companies to launch mass production," he explained.

SID Bank chairman Sibil Svilan said the loans would range from EUR 100,000 to EUR 15m, with all Slovenian companies eligible.

He said countries such as South Korea, Japan and Germany earmarked almost 4% of GDP for R&D, while Slovenia does not reach even the 3.6% it had set itself as a goal.

He estimated that the scheme would have a four-fold multiplicative effect.

The fund - termed credit fund 4 - is a successor to credit fund 1, which was set up during the crisis in 2011 to encourage R&D in 2011-2013. It provided loans worth EUR 120m to 28 companies.