8 September 2010 - Ecorys staff in Belgrade successfully organised the final event for the ‘Technical support to enterprise policy and innovation project’ in Serbia. The project started 1 September 2008 and finalised 31 August 2010. The project team worked with the Ministry of Economy and the National Agency for Regional Development in Serbia. The final conference took place on 19 August in Belgrade.

Project results
Ecorys supported the Ministry with a successful implementation of the Strategy for Competitive and Innovative Small and Medium-sized Enterprises 2008-2013 over the first two years of its five-year lifespan. Furthermore, the team developed a SME portal, which delivers real time, focused assistance to SMEs in a wide range of business activities. Ecorys staff also established a Europe Enterprise Network office under the management of the National Agency for Regional Development. This office facilitates the flow of EU Grant Funding (CIP & FP7 programmes) into the SME sector leading to new markets, new technology and high value-added niche product development. The office was established in June 2009 and has been fully functional since the beginning of 2010.

The project provided technical assistance to more then 150 SMEs throughout Serbia focusing particularly on embedding innovation management systems. Furthermore, the team trained regional innovation advisors in Regional Development Agencies on various subjects .These advisors will continue to deliver assistance to Serbian enterprises. They will assist not only enterprises that have been subject to project intervention, but also enterprises which will be targeted for assistance by the Agencies (RDAs) in the future.

Final conference
The Assistant Minister of Economy, Mr. Dejan Radulovic, addressing the auditorium of 100 guests, accented that more than 150 SMEs were directly involved in the two-year project. He also confirmed the importance of the project contributing to the strengthening of institutions that are implementing the development of SMEs and strengthening their capacity for innovation. He concluded that the project was a success. Sjaak Boeckhout (Managing Partner Region, Strategy & Entrepreneurship) represented Ecorys at the event. Welcoming the guests on behalf of Ecorys, he introduced the Team leader Stephen O’Mullane, who elaborated at length on the results of the project. At the end of the two-hour event five directors from Serbian SMEs that took part in the project, described what benefits they had received from the projects. The event was extensively covered by the media, with several news agencies, five of the ost important Serbian printed media andalso  the national radio reporting on the final event of the project.

For more information:

Diederik Rietveldt
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