Belgrade, April 13 – Two projects funded by the European Union Support to Enterprise Competitiveness and Export Promotion (SECEP) and RSEDP 2 hold the training session on "Project Preparation" for the group of clusters and business support organizations and cluster managers operating in Serbia.

International and local experts for project preparation provided useful and practical guidance to 25 participants (10 from clusters, 6 from RDAs and 9 from RDAs and SME Agencies). The training provided explicit elaboration of good practices required for applications for Ministry or EU grants.

The training was conducted by Ms Tatjana Volarev, SECEP’s Training Expert and Mr. Romeo Dretcanu RSEDP’s expert.

In order to foster innovation activities in the Serbian SME sector Support to Enterprise Competitiveness and Export Promotion (SECEP) will organize training for representatives of clusters, business support organizations and targeted companies in Belgrade on March 30.

This will be second workshop/training of this kind in 2011 targeting the use of IMP3OVE tool that will be organized for representatives of business entities participating in SECEP’s cluster support programme. The training will take place in the Belgrade’s School of Information Technology (Tadeusa Koscuska, 63).

Nis Cluster of Advanced Technologies was established on Tuesday, March 15 in Nis as final phase of the cluster initiative raised few months ago. The cluster was established by representatives of 18 local dynamic companies that operate in Electro-mechanics and ICT sector.

In addition to participating companies as founders there appeared to be five business support organisations Electronic and Mechanical engineering faculties, Business Incubator, Regional Development Agency Nis and regional Chamber of Commerce from Nis. Initial support to this cluster initiative was given by the City of Nis, regional ICT sector, faculties and the EU funded SECEP project.

The cluster Chairman is Mr. Slavoljub Vasiljevic, owner of company Craft (www.craft.rs) while other members of the Managing Board are:
- Goran Jovanovic - www.tagor.rs
- Branislav Brindic www.harderdigital.com
- Sasa Kocic www.proxima-medical.co.rs

- Ljubisa Jonev www.irvas.rs/archive.html

 

Inter-cluster business meeting of representatives of ICT Vojvodina Cluster, ICT NET and recently established Ni-CAT from Nis will take place on April 19, 2011 in the Belgrade’s hotel Kristal. Companies from three clusters of advanced technologies will introduce them and debate about eventual cooperation and will try to respond to other clusters’ demands for better cooperation in different industrial zones.

Participants at this business meeting - Auto-cluster Kragujevac www.kg-cci.co.rs, AC Srbija www.acserbia.org.rs, furniture and wood-processing cluster from Central and Southern Serbia and wardrobe cluster FACTS www.clusterfacts.org.rs will analyse needs of their members and will present to participating companies aspects for introducing ICT solutions in manufacturing and application of innovations in their regular business.

It is planned to have representatives from the EU funded project „Support to Enterprise Competitiveness and Export promotion” (SECEP), Ministry of Economy and Regional Development and from the “Network of business angels of Serbia”.

At the inter-cluster meeting two success stories will be presented – domestic Andorid business platform and establishment of the EMC laboratory that is ongoing. For more details about these two projects please visit: www.ict-net.com.

Two-day workshop (jointly organised by the EU funded projects SECEP and ICIP) for managers from business support organisations was held on February 23 and 24 in Belgrade’s Serbian Intellectual Property Office (IPO). Representatives from RDAs, SME Agencies, NARR, clusters and other business associations participated in valuable experts’ demonstration of cluster support tools, networking and innovative business advises.

Experienced pool of local and international experts consisted of: Andrzej Schafernaker, Dr Lisa Cowey, Michael B. Dan, Genoveva Christova, Katarina Jurlina, Snezana Selakovic, Boris Krstanovic, Aleksandar Karaev, Aleksandar Nevoljica, Dragisa Mijacic, and the IPO’s Nikola Radovanovic.

Participants made progress in agreeing on the further steps towards the successful implementation of the IMP³rove tools in Serbia. Support to Enterprise Competitiveness and Export Promotion (SECEP) and Improved SME Competitiveness and Innovation Project (ICIP) are funded by the European Union as part of IPA assistance projects.

European Union projects SECEP and ICIP organize two-day training for business support organisation managers on February 23 and 24, 2010 in Belgrade. These trainings shall help international and local experts, business and cluster managers to share the knowledge and experience but also to become permanent training resource for business support organisations during the lifetime of these two projects.

Trainings are designed for business service professionals from Regional Development Agencies, SME agencies, clusters and other business support organizations. On February 23 SECEP experts will provide training on how to identify and support good clusters, developed and delivered by SECEP.

On February 24 jointly developed training by SECEP and ICIP experts will be delivered as - Advancing Innovation: Introduction to innovation management and how it can be supported through the IMP3rove tool.

Training organised by: - Support to Enterprise Competitiveness and Export promotion SECEP (www.secep.rs)

- Improved SME Competitiveness and Innovation ICIP (www.icip-serbia.org)

The Support to Enterprise Competitiveness and Export Promotion (SECEP) organised inter cluster meeting/workshop on Friday, December 3 in Belgrade. SECEP’s Cluster Expert from Criatia Boris Krstanović presented to the participants local and regional experience in sharing the experiences and ideas about how to use clustering as a way of improving business performance.

 

 

In particular, it was a workshop about the help to existing cluster champions to improve their cluster activities and to educate future cluster champions on implementing clustering activities.

 

Presentation

 

On Thursday 2nd December 2010 in Belgrade, SECEP's Cluster Team held a Workshop for Cluster Managers and Business Associations'
representatives from several sectors throughout Serbia.

Presentations and practical excercises were held by SECEP's International Cluster Development Expert; Ms. Genoveva Hristova, President of Bulgarian Cluster Association and Mr. Aleksa Nevoljica, SECEP's Cluster Development Expert.

The objective of this workshop was to present the Cluster Managers with basic cluster management activities, and to initiate discussions on development of the future cluster training program. The participants were given examples of how to start the process of gathering information from the clusters, and were presented different experiences in submitting grant applications from the programs supporting cluster development. This method provides basis for future trainings for cluster representatives, and serves as support to the Ministry of Economy in improving organizational and procedure programs for supporting cluster development.

Presentation

On Thursday 2nd December 2010, SECEP's component Local Supplier Development Chain organized one-day Workshop with the subject "Motivation and Award of the Employees".

The Workshop was held by an international expert Mr. Paul Banfield, who actively included in discussion and practical exercises over 20 company representatives participating.

SECEP's Supplier Development Program seeks to improve SME performance through improving product quality and business environment, in order to become more efficient and ready to supply multi national companies present in the Republic of Serbia.

Niš, 30th November 2010 – City of Niš, Regional Chamber of Commerce and University of Niš together with SECEP Project (Support to Enterprise Competitiveness and Export Promotion) have signed a Memorandum of Support for development of the Advance Technology Business Cluster. The Memorandum was signed in the City Hall of Niš by the Mayor of Niš Mr. Miloš Simonović, Team Leader of the SECEP Project Mr. Andrzej Schafernaker, Vice President of the Regional Chamber of Commerce Mr.  Aleksandar Jelić and Vice Chancellor of the University of Niš Mr. Dragan Denić.

This Memorandum foresees establishment and support of the Advance Technology Cluster (usage of information technologies and production of electronic equipment),  by the City of Niš, Project SECEP, Chamber of Commerce and the University of Niš – foremost the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and the Faculty of Electronic Engineering.

Support to such a form of associating of companies from Niš and the whole region, means help in business and technical development, research, marketing and common market presence. The Advance Technology Cluster may also rely on help in developing knowledge and skills of its employees, on establishing cooperation with educational institutions etc.

The signing ceremony was attended by Senior Advisor at the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development Mr. Ivan Brkić, SECEP's Cluster Expert from Macedonia Mr. Aleksandar Karaev who spoke on the importance of clusters, as well as representatives of numerous companies in Niš.

“Cluster networking is very important as it encourages competitiveness, and associating is an important factor of market presence. We should embrace support of the European Union in creating sustainable companies and enhancing  market in Niš and wider region“, said the Mayor Simonović.

When explaining SECEP's proposal for establishing this cluster, Mr. Andrzej Schafernaker said:”Among other things, SECEP seeks to help development of cluster potentials in Serbia. By analyzing distribution of companies in the country, we have come to realize that Niš has many companies working in sectors connected to the ICT and mechanical engineering. Based on that we have proposed establishment of such a cluster, and facilitation of its work.”

The first in a series of SECEP cluster workshops in the Central Serbia took place in Kraljevo on November 4, 2010. International cluster expert Genoveva Christova showcased experience of cluster activities from the countries in the region for around 30 representatives of companies and institutions from the wood and wood-processing sector.

 

 

Next project’s cluster workshops in the Central Serbia will take place in Kruševac and Kragujevac. Main focus of these workshops is to introduce Serbian companies and institutions, region by region, with new forms of business assembling especially with clusters.

 

Over twenty multinational companies and around 200 Serbian enterprises met in Belgrade at “Meet the Buyer”. This business event was organised by SECEP – Support to Enterprise Competitiveness and Export Promotion, a project funded by the European Union in cooperation with the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development in support to competitive Serbian firms able to apply standards of foreign companies and become part of chain of international suppliers.

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Economy and Regional Development Mladjan Dinkic and Head of Delegation of the European Union to Serbia Ambassador Vincent Degert opened in Belgrade a business event “Meet the Buyer”. The event, which was organised to help big companies find domestic suppliers of goods and services, gathered the representatives of over twenty multinational companies and around 200 Serbian enterprises.

Minister Dinkic pointed out that Serbia was the most attractive country in the region to foreign investors, adding that he expected foreign investment to reach nearly four billion dollars in 2011. Small and medium enterprises together employ one million people, says Minister Dinkic, and this is why it is important for them to be part of a supplier chain and have their work for multinational companies validated worldwide.

Ambassador Vincent Degert said that the intent of the event organisers was to encourage Serbian companies interconnect and prepare for the EU market. Degert said that the EU had awarded grants worth ten billion euros and loans worth five billion euros to Serbia, all with a view to helping Serbia join the EU as soon as possible. He pointed out that the EU provided 3.5 million euros for the SECEP project and stated that its key objective was to support the development of market economy, and enhance competitiveness and export abilities of small and medium enterprises.

Many companies known worldwide were present at the event in Belgrade, among them Coca-Cola, Lafarge, IKEA, Ball Packaging, Metro Cash & Cary, GlaxoSmithKline, JTI, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Schneider Electric, Siemens, Tigar Tiers, US Steel, West, Merkur, etc. Stands of these companies were visited by Minister Dinkic and Ambassador Degert accompanied by SECEP’s Team Leader Andrzej Schafernaker and SECEP’s Senior Expert John Varney.

SECEP Project organizes “Meet the Buyer” for representatives of the Serbian small and medium enterprises that operates in automotive, metal, IT, electronic and pharmaceutical and packaging sectors. The event will take place on October 7, 2010 in Novi Belgrade’s “EXPO XXI, Milutina Milankovića 74 at 10 a.m.

It is expected that more than twenty big multinational companies from Southeast Europe will take place as “buyers”. Participation in this event would offer you the opportunity to meet officials from these companies and to present them your companies, products, services and development plans.

We kindly ask representatives of the Serbian small and medium enterprises to fill the form “company profile” that is attached to the link below the text and send it electronically via e-mail bozanic@secep.rs no later than Friday, September 24, 2010.
Company profiles that SECEP project receives will be forwarded to multinational companies who will make their selection of companies they want to meet and negotiate future cooperation during the “Meet the Buyer” event.

Company profile

Invitation

As part of its Supply Development component SECEP Project hosted Professor Dr. Michael Rawlinson from United Kingdom who performed the presentation on the lean manufacturing to more than 25 representatives of Serbian companies that participate in the SECEP project.

Presentation was held in Belgrade’s hotel Balkan on Thursday, July 22, 2010.

 

 

Professor Rawlinson introduced participants with key principles of lean manufacturing and its practical implementation in today’s industry.

He presented examples of the best European lean manufacturing practices in the small and medium enterprises sector with special focus on automotive industry.

Quality Tools and Techniques...

Belgrade, July 08, 2010 - An EU funded project Support to Enterprise Competitiveness and Export Promotion (SECEP) organised a meeting in the Serbian Chamber of Commerce (SCC) initiating establishment of the National Cluster Association. In partnership with the SCC who chaired the meeting by its Vice-President Mihajlo Vesovic, SECEP gathered representatives from different clusters from all over Serbia and representatives from the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development, SIEPA, National Agency for Regional Development, LEDIB.

SECEP’s Team Leader Andrzej Schafernaker introduced participants with opportunities that National Clusters Association could bring to clusters and business in Serbia, while SECEP’s Legal Expert Tanja Volarev explained legislation and suggested possible legal forms for establishment of the Clusters Association. SCC’s Aleksandar Nikolic presented opportunities that SCC offers to clusters and proposals on how best to benefit from making national Clusters Association as specific cluster network. President of the Croatian Association of ICT clusters Boris Krstanovic presented Croatian experience in establishing the Association and models of cooperation among cluster-members.

After interesting debate participants agreed to for a Working Group that will further develop proposal for establishment of the National Association and forms of the future support to existing Serbian clusters.

Support to Enterpise Competitiveness and Export Promotion project (SECEP) organized a workshop on clusters and cluster opprtunities in Serbia in Belgrade’s „Aero klub“ on Tuesday, June 22, 2010. Representatives from the SECEP project’s beneficiaries, cluster representatives from Serbia and guests from cluster associations from the region, as well as representatives from the Serbian Chamber of Commerce and SIEPA were hosted by SECEP’s Team Leader Andrzej Schafernaker.

 

Key note speakers at the workshop were Ivan Brkic from the Serbian Ministry of Economy and Regional Development, Boris Krstanovic from the Association of Croatian ICT Clusters, Genoveva Christova Chairperson of the Association of Business Clusters in Bulgaria and representative from the EU funded POLUS cluster programme from Hungary.

 

Kragujevac, May 19, 2010 – Meet the Buyer event organized by the EU funded project Support to Enterprise Competitiveness and Export promotion (SECEP) was presented as central happening at the opening of the first regional fair of car parts producers in the South East Europe. SECEP Project, Regional Chamber of Commerce Kragujevac and Šumadija-sajam made possible for the first fair of car parts producers „Auto Compo Net” to take place in Kragujevac with around 100 exhibitors participating.

The fair and „Meet the Buyer” as its central event and meeting point for multinational and local and regional companies, were opened by Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Dačić, SECEP’s Team Leader Andržej Schafernaker and Head of the Regional Chamber of Kragujevac Dušan Puača.

Dačič thanked to the EU project for assistance to Serbian companies and stressed that Serbia and the Balkans region could become very attractive for the world’s leading car manufacturers who wish to set up new production units. “leading names in the car industry are joining forces to respond to global challenges and this trend should be followed because the global market is as competitive as it is profitable”, he said.

Speaking about EU assistance to Serbian economy Schafernaker said that SECEP’s budget of EUR 3.5 million is part of IPA package totaling EUR 6.5 million that EU allocated so far to support enterpreneurship and competitiveness in Serbia. „Meet the Buyer is part of the larger project. This event provides opportunities for local suppliers to meet international buyers in person, to see their purchasing requirements and to begin negotiations. This is an integral part of SECEP’s mission to improve the competitiveness of Serbian business and help them to enter global supply chains. Today’s Meet the Buyer is one out of four that SECEP will organize in Serbia in the next 18 months”, he stressed.

Dačić and Schafernaker visited SECEP’s stands at the Meet the Buyer and spoke to representatives of Volkswagen, General Motors, Peugeot, Mitsuba and Knorr Brems who had bussines begotiations about future cooperation with companies from Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia and Macedonia.

Support to Enterprise Competitiveness and Export Promotion (SECEP) officially announced that „Meet the Buyer” event will take place in Kragujevac from 19 to 21 May as part of the „Auto Compo Net” fair and central Serbian celebration of the „SME Week”. Representatives of the Regional Chamber of Commerce from Kragujevac, Serbian Chamber of Commerce and SECEP a project funded by the Europen Union (EU) – announced at the press conference in Belgrade on May 5 that will co-organize series of events to establish regional cooperation between producers of automotive component from the Western Balkans.

As presented by the SECEP’s Team Leader Andrzej Schafernaker „Meet the Buyer” will be the unique chance for local and regional producers of automotive components to present their products and services to multinational companies. „Volkswagen”, „General Motors” and number of their direct suppliers confirmed participation athe these events. Meet the Buyer would serve as an opportunity for local SMEs to play the role of seller while multinationalo companies would play the role of a buyer.

 

“Meet the Buyer event is important forcooperation between SECEP, SIEPA, Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Regional Chamber of Commerce in Kragujevac and it is the integral part of SECEP’s Supply development programme. We aim to help companies to develop their capacities and to strengthen capacity building of selected companies to become part of supply chains in two ways. The first way is through individual work where we’re helping them to improve their performance and business aspects in various parts of their operation. By quoting this year’s slogan of the SME Week celebration we can say that we “train champions”. The second way how we help them is by organizing reverse exhibitions like “Meet the Buyer” where local companies can meet potentially interested multinational companies and to further develop eventual cooperation”, said Schafernaker.

 

The public call for participation in the Serbian Supplier Development programme closed on Tuesday, 16th of February 2010. The SECEP team would like to thank all applicants.

The applications will be screened and scored against the published criteria in the coming week.  The validation panel will take place on the 26th of February and successful applicants will be informed during week commencing 1st of March. Participating companies will be requested to complete a Memorandum of Understanding which will ensure confidentiality of information gathered during the project.

SECEP Team envisage the commencement of assessment process during March.

This of course will involve close liaison between the programme teams and the companies.

On Wednesday, December 16 SECEP’s Supplier Development Programme presented the Supplier Development project component in Belgrade at the presentation organized by the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce (www.kombeg.org.rs). The presentation “Possibilities to Become Qualified Supplier” hosted by the Chamber was co-organised by the SECEP Project Team and the Serbia Investment and Export Promotion Agency SIEPA (www.siepa.gov.rs).

This presentation served as an opportunity for representatives of 21 small and medium enterprises (SMESs) from Serbia to learn more about possibilities for applying for the SECEP’s Supply development Programme that gives them and opportunity to join to some of the international supply chains.

On behalf of the SECEP project Mr. Nenad Božanić Senior Supplier Development Expert presented key opportunities that SECEP offer, while Mr. Andrija Bednarik represented SIEPA at this event. Mr. Miloš Došen represented the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce.

Among 21 companies participating at the presentation there were: SINTER, IVA 28, IRITEL, Kreativne inovacije, HYFIX, Servoteh, Zavon, Yutro, PPT Servoupravljači Trstenik, Vin Co., Lola Fluidomatik, Bell Medic, DES, Pneumo Logic, Telefon inženjering, Propulzija, Novatronic etc.

 

Having in mind the importance of small and medium sized enterprises and the success of last year's campaign, the European Commission has decided to include the European SME Week initiative in their traditional activities for promoting entrepreneurship in Europe.

The aim of this initiative is to promote entrepreneurship through the organization of different events (conferences, seminars, workshops, round tables, fairs, exhibitions, performances, etc.).

This pan-European promotional campaign will be realized during May and June 2010 in 37 countries, through the organization of a series of promotional events at the national, regional and local level.

With the aim of successful implementation of promotional campaign SME Week in the Republic of Serbia, we hereby invite all potential organizers, who plan to organize events which promote entrepreneurship in defined period, to join this initiative.

For more information please contact Jelena Stevanović (011/2855-040, jelena.stevanovic@ merr.gov.rs), and Marija Stošković (011/2855-132, marija.stoskovic@merr.gov.rs) in the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development, who are responsible for the coordination of activities and contact with potential organizers of the event and Dejan Trifunović and Aleksandar Nikolić (011/3300 988 or 011/3300-989, msp@pks.rs) in the Serbian Chamber of Commerce.

 

http://ec.europa.eu/sme-week

 

Eighth International Fair of Entrepreneurship Business Base 2009th will take place in the Hall 4 of the Belgrade Fair from 26 to 28 November, 2009. The aim of the fair is to promote best examples of the SME sector from all economic activities, which will perform individually, by commodity groups, associations, and by a regional basis and within the local government.

 

The slogan of this year's fair is "The road to success" and a continuation of last year's idea - "Step to success".

SECEP Team will take place on the fair wishing to establish new and to strengthen existing links between international experts and local economic operators as a synergy of the support to the Serbian SMEs on their development process and integration into the set of EU standards and singe market rules.

 

 

The first week of December saw the completion of the first block of training for 10 new European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) assessors. The EFQM is a method for assessing a company's performance across a whole range of activities. It is a diagnostic tool which identifies in detail strengths and weaknesses in company performance and shows clearly how a company can improve its performance.  The new assessors who come from the Serbian Chamber of Commerce and SIEPA will commence their assessments of SMEs early in the New Year.

It is planned to train twenty new assessors in February next year. The assessments are the first step in the supplier development programme. This programme is designed to help SMEs become capable of competing in international supply chains of Multinational companies.

Though the delegates found the training hard they all agreed it was very worthwhile.

The trainees (in the picture below) can be seen undertaking one of the case study exercises which form a major part of the course content. The course was delivered by Mr. David Rusk from the UK company North of England Excellence, who was impressed with the quality of the Serbian delegates stating that they were among the best he had trained.

Support to Enterprise Competitiveness and Export Promotion (SECEP), Project funded by the European Union, has launched the Public Call to Serbian companies offering a possibility to join the supply chain system of international companies. This will be achieved through: training , consultancy and introductions to potential buyers.

All SMEs in Serbia that meet the minimum criteria (listed in the Public Call) can apply for the programme. The deadline for applications is February 15, 2010. Details of this call and the application criteria can be found at the Serbian Investment and Export Promotion Agency www.siepa.gov.rs and the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development www.merr.gov.rs.