Belgrade – The project of support to the private sector development (PSD), with which the Development Agency of Serbia (RAS) applied at the competition for the best idea in the field of promoting entrepreneurship EEPA 2017, is the national winner and Serbia’s representative at the said European competition.

According to the RAS, Serbia will compete with this project in the finals of the competition for the prestigious award, which will be given in Brussels on September 26. The other competitors include 28 EU member states, as well as Iceland, Norway and Turkey.

The EEPA (European Enterprise Promotion Awards) competition is an initiative of the European Commission, which thus seeks to recognize and reward the outstanding examples of support and promotion of entrepreneurship. The European award brings to the winner visibility and promotion across Europe and, as a positive example, inspires others to start their businesses.

The RAS implements the PSD project, in cooperation with the US Agency for International Development (USAID), in three cities (Vranje, Leskovac and Novi Pazar) and nine municipalities (Presevo, Bujanovac, Medvedja, Raska, Sjenica, Tutin, Priboj, Prijepolje and Nova Varos) in southern and southwestern Serbia. The PSD project provides support to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurs, associations/clusters and youth and women's entrepreneurship in the light, food and textile industries, in order to increase exports and sales and create more jobs. 

As part of the project, 184 micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurs have, so far, been supported through training, mentoring, consulting and technical assistance. 76 projects have been approved, 12 international trade fairs held, as well as two bilateral (B2B) meetings.

The project provides support to women's and youth entrepreneurship, too, so that over 400 beneficiaries have, so far, been trained for start-ups and 180 business plans have been submitted for grants. 60 grants for business start-ups have been awarded through the competitions for funding the best business ideas and 30 grants for the further development of business operations, while additional training courses and mentoring have been conducted for newly established businesses.

Source: www.ekapija.com and Coordination Body