The ceiling of the amounts offered by the Loan Guarantee Fund (LGF) has been raised from 300,000 lei to 700,000 for active companies and from 100,000 lei to 300,000 lei for starting companies, Economy Minister Valeriu Lazar announced at a news conference. Valeriu Lazar said that at the same time administrative barriers to obtaining guarantees will be removed and the SMEs will be assisted with their business plans so as to improve their access to borrowing. The sum of 2 million lei allocated this year to the LGF from the state budget adds to the 6 million lei already available in the Fund, but the Government plans to increase the LGF's budget to 100 million lei, including 50 million lei from foreign sources, like the funds offered to Moldova by the European Commission. So far the LGF has guaranteed 25 loans taken out by SMEs.