Representatives of 26 Business Support Organizations (BSOs) and of companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia attended the training event in Belgrade on 3-4 April 2012 within the framework of the project FIT4SMEs - Financial Facilities for SMEs: Training and Capacity Building for Business Support Organisations in non-EU Member States of the Central European Initiative.
FIT4SMEs is co-financed by the CEI Fund at the EBRD (funded by the Italian Government) and by the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia (Italy), and is coordinated by INFORMEST. The project’s main goal is to strengthen the capacities of BSOs in CEI non-EU recipient countries.
In his opening remarks, CEI Alternate Secretary General Giorgio Rosso Cicogna said he was very pleased more than 100 Serbian enterprises attended the gathering. He underlined the direct participation of 26 Business Support Organisations from Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina "intermediary bodies with a fundamental role in assisting and accompanying the activities of smaller enterprises towards full use of the many instruments of financial support".
The growing importance SMEs have in Serbia’s economic and development system was emphasised by the State Secretary of the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development of Serbia, Ms Dragijana Radonjic Petrovic. She highlighted that SMEs make up 99.8% of Serbia’s GDP, that they employ two-thirds of the entire workforce and contribute to over 50% of the country's overall exports.
Moreover, the Head of the Economic and Trade Department of the Italian Embassy in Belgrade, Paolo Toschi, underlined the extensive efforts carried out by the Serbian government in order to encourage and provide incentives for the SME sector. Toschi also reaffirmed Italy's full support to the regional and EU integration policies of Western Balkan countries as well as to the project promoted by the CEI and INFORMEST.
Welcome speeches were also delivered by the president of the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce, Milan Jankovic, and by Sandra Sodini, on behalf of INFORMEST.
During the working sessions, participants had the chance to gain know-how about various financial opportunities offered by International Financial Institutions, such as the European Investment Bank (EIB), the World Bank (WB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and to interact with representatives of the commercial bank ProCredit Bank Serbia that presented its experience in managing the funds allocated by the above-mentioned IFIs.
Furthermore, the Victoria Group case study - one of the largest private agribusiness groups in Serbia – was presented as a successful example of cooperation between the CEI the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). In 2007 a set of CEI-funded energy audits were carried out in three agro-industrial sites of Victoria Group. This audit led to €5 million energy efficiency investments by the EBRD within the framework of a €45 million loan to the Group.
The first training event was successfully held in Tirana (Albania) on 15-16 March 2012, the next event will be organised in Kyiv, on 24-25 May 2012.
For more information: www.fit4smes.net