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On February 26 in Pazardzhik, Ambassador Beyrle presented the Roma Entrepreneur 2007 Awards at a ceremony organized under the USAID Roma Micro-lending Global Development Alliance (GDA) project. The Roma Entrepreneurs 2007 Awards Ceremony recognized the winners in a nationwide competition among Roma micro-credit clients. The criteria for participation in the competition included having a registered business, a record of paid taxes and other state obligations confirmed by tax receipts, a good loan repayment history, significance of the business to the community, and the recommendation of the loan officers. The awards were granted to a businesswoman from Sofia who used the loans to expand her hairstyling studio, and to two businessmen from Razgrad and Pazardzhik, involved in cattle breeding/agriculture and trade respectively.

The objective of the $1.1 million, 20-month USAID Roma Micro-lending project, implemented by the US NGO Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in partnership with the local micro-credit institutions Ustoi and Mikrofond, is to provide micro-lending opportunities in selected Roma disadvantaged communities, and to promote the image of the Roma entrepreneur. The Roma Micro-lending GDA supplements the traditional micro-credit activities of the local organizations, and utilizes their existing network of branches to extend credit access to minorities with minimum administrative costs. The project is one of the last programs funded by USAID in Bulgaria, and over the past 17 months has provided micro-credits to 611 entrepreneurs with a little above one million USD granted in micro-loans to individual businesses and groups of entrepreneurs from disadvantaged ethnic minority communities.