European Consulting Group, in cooperation with our partners – the Serbian Association of Managers, the Association of Business Women of Serbia and Impact Hub, and sponsored by the Erste Bank on June 10, held a conference on “Financing growth: financial support to small and medium-sized enterprises in Serbia.”

The conference was opened by Ms. Katarina Obradovic Jovanovic, Assistant Minister in the Ministry of Economy of Serbia, Natasa Kecman from the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, director of the Center for services and mediation, while the key speaker at the plenary session was Prof. Ante Babic, director of the Center for International Development from Croatia, with extensive experience in the field of European integration and a member of the Croatian Council for Foreign Investment.

As an introduction, Mrs. Obradovic Jovanovic stressed that the development of small and medium enterprises is one of the pillars of economic development strategy, which was adopted in March, and that Serbia has opted for a market economy. She said that it was necessary that the companies increasingly start using various sources of financing at different stages of their business. Ms. Kecman presented their portal http://www.poslovanje.rs/ , recently launched by SCC, where entrepreneurs can get all the necessary information about the possibility of financing their projects and businesses in one place.

This address was followed by a plenary presentation by Prof. Ante Babic focusing on the experience of Croatia in EU integration process and potential similarities with the situation in the Republic of Serbia based on the negotiating chapters.
Following the plenary presentation of Croatian EU integration experience, work continued with panel discussions, witnessing a live communication between the representatives of the financiers on one hand and representatives of SMEs on the other.

The first panel hosted a presentation on EU funds available to SMEs, i.e. Horizon 2020 and COSME programs which funds become available in 2016, together with IPA funds. Business community can influence greater allocation of funds for SMEs through IPA, but they should bear in mind that EU programs are increasingly open to innovation and cooperation between science and practice.

Financing through Commercial Banks is available in the forms of commercial credit, loans for working capital and investment loans in cooperation with the EIB. Since SMEs are considered the pillar of economic development in Serbia nowadays, banks are slowly focusing on this sector, but stress the need for institutionalization of these transactions. Through cooperation with the National Bank, solutions should be found for directing additional funds to SMEs, reducing legal obstacles and stimulating innovative ideas among entrepreneurs.

The third panel hosted a group of key investment funds in Serbia and the region, who presented various models of investment primarily intended for medium-sized enterprises and growth, restructuring and start-ups in the field of information technology. Although this method of financing in Serbia is still not sufficiently developed, there were also successful cases. Challenge for local companies stays in access to investment capital and will to adjust. Most entrepreneurs are not ready to give up complete ownership over their companies, or are not familiar with the models of financing through investment funds, which should be further addressed.