The Sarajevo Regional Development Agency (SERDA) with the technical support of the Japanese Agency for International Cooperation began the realization of the project “Establishing and promoting monitoring system for small and medium businesses in countries of Western Balkans” (Serbia, BiH and Montenegro).
As part of the project, a monitoring system will be established that represents the joint work of mentors and business people in finding the most favorable solutions for future business. The Japanese experience in carrying out mentoring showed that the effects of this kind of consulting is far greater than the temporary and short-term advice.
The Director of SERDA Ševkija Okerić said that the project will last three years.
“Serbia has already began with this project and we will transfer the experience to BiH. SERDA is implementing the project and the beginning phase is tied to the Sarajevo economic region, and later on the project will be realized throughout BIH. The first will be for mentors to educate SERDA employees and to lend services to small and medium businesses’’, explained Okerić at the first meeting of the Joint Committee for Project Coordination (JCC-Joint Coordination Committee) that was held on 9 July 2013.
Representative of the Japanese Agency for International Cooperation Jun Hirashima said that this is a Japanese model of monitoring and that it is expanding throughout the world.
“The mentors provide services to small and medium businesses through consulting with the advice of access to financial funds and commercial banks. We think that small and medium businesses could have a big role in the BiH economy’’, said Hirashima.
The Ministry for Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH provides support, because such a project in BIH is being implemented for the first time. This project was implemented in the EU several years ago, and for a long time is being implemented in the US and Japan.
(Source: ekapija.com)
