The Principles are developed for the purpose of being applied to public CGSs for SMEs. Public CGSs for SMEs are institutions created by the government, which retains de jure or de facto control as defined in relevant home country laws, to provide credit guarantees to
lenders to ease access to credit for SMEs operating in its jurisdiction. Target SMEs may operate in any sector, including agriculture. Public CGSs can be national, regional or local in scope. The Principles are also intended to be applied to two-tier CGSs, where there is a
system of CGSs operating locally which reinsure part of their risk to a central counter- CGS. The Principles, however, include a number of good practices, which can be applied to other forms of CGSs, including international, cross-border CGSs, donor-funded CGSs and
privately-owned CGSs.