Goran Vasić and Siniša Lazić announced the international conference aimed at strengthening SMEs

In cooperation with the European Affairs Fund of AP Vojvodina, the Guarantee Fund of Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is organising the international conference ‘’Strengthening of Small and Medium-siz

In cooperation with the European Affairs Fund of AP Vojvodina, the Guarantee Fund of Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is organising the international conference ‘’Strengthening of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises by Guarantee Schemes and COSME Programme’’ on Thursday, 20th November. At today’s press conference, the directors of the two Funds, Goran Vasić and Siniša Lazić announced the conference programme and the reasons why they had decided to inform the public about the instruments for SME development in EU member states. What role that sector played in the EU was shown by the fact that it employed two thirds of the EU workforce in economy and that 60% of EU GDP was from SMEs, said Goran Vasić, director of the Guarantee Fund of AP Vojvodina.

“At the moment, we are more occupied with budget cutting and saving, what is to destine large systems, whereas we pay little attention to the SME’s sector, which is important, or deal with it occasionally. The announced strategy for the development of this sector is good news, but we have to deal with specific instruments for financial support. One of the rare specific measures in that field is the call announced by the Provincial Secretariat for Economy, Employment and Gender Equality. The conference that we organise aims at presenting the experiences of Hungary, Italy and Austria in this field and seeing how powerful instruments micro-credit and guarantee schemes are. Our goal is to obtain some recommendation on what steps Serbia should take in the field of legal framework based on the experiences of these countries”, emphasized Goran Vasić, director of the Guarantee Fund of AP Vojvodina.

“The presentation at the conference will also involve the EU Programme COSME which aim is to improve SME competitiveness from 2014 until 2020”, announced Siniša Lazić, director of the European Affairs Fund of AP Vojvodina. “The programme is, first of all, aimed at enhancing SME competitiveness and it is being implemented by four components. The first one is better access to finance through guarantee schemes and entrepreneurial capital, the second one is access to market, the third one is support to entrepreneurs, and the fourth one is more favourable conditions for business creation and growth. At the conference, we wish to present the opportunities that will be open for SMEs from 2014 to 2020“, said Siniša Lazić, director of European Affairs Fund of AP Vojvodina. The speakers at the conference ‘’Strengthening of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises by Guarantee Schemes and COSME Programme’’ will be guests from Hungary, Italy, Austria, Germany, furthermore representatives of the National Bank of Serbia, Ministries of Finance and Economy, Delegation of the European Unions to the Republic of Serbia, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, USAID, AGRO INVEST Serbia. The participation of the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia, representatives of local self-governments, economists, bankers and non-governmental sector is expected. The Conference is to be held in the large hall of the Assembly of AP Vojvodina on 20th November commencing at 10 a.m.