The Ministry of Economy announced that in the premises of the Montenegrin Chamber of Commerce, a roundtable was held within the framework of a public debate on the Draft Strategy of Development of MMSP in Montenegro for 2018-2022 with the Framework Action Plan.
According to Babić, the importance of the MMSP sector is also the statistical data showing the growth trend, seen by the number of companies and employees.
"The number of MMSPs in 2017, according to Tax Administration data, was 26,755, an increase of 44 percent compared to 2011, while the micro enterprises account to 90 percent of the total number of the enterprises," said Babic.
Presenting the draft document, he said that all key findings came from dialogues with the representatives of MMSP, used in creating this document. "The Strategy is based on an analysis of the state of MMSP sector, identifying the key challenges faced by entrepreneurs and overcoming them on the basis of the defined strategic and operational goals. Significant contributions to the creation of the Strategy were the collected opinions and attitudes on the needs of MMSP through a direct dialogue with the entrepreneurs during the realized Business Caravan by the Ministry of Economy," said Babic.
According to him, five strategic objectives are defined that further elaborate operational objectives and measures to improve MMSP competitiveness in the medium term - improving the business environment, improving access to funding sources, entrepreneurial competence, knowledge and skills - alignment with labor market needs, strengthening competitiveness and innovativeness of MMSP, and the promotion of entrepreneurship by young people, women and social entrepreneurship.
"Strategic goals related to the business environment, access to finances and facilitating the acquisition of the necessary knowledge and skills are linked to a comprehensive environment that should facilitate the development of entrepreneurship as a whole, while the fourth goal is related to improving the capacity at the enterprise level that should result in increased competitiveness of MMSP," added Babic, adding that on this basis a model was established to promote entrepreneurship among potential entrepreneurs and specific target groups.
As he pointed out, the working group that drafted this document was represented by more than 70 participants from all the ministries, agencies, economy, NGO sector and international institutions in Montenegro, and the invite for the participation in the performance of the working group was open to all interested parties. Babic explained that monitoring the implementation of the Strategy and the Action Plan will be carried out by the Ministry of Economy, i.e. the newly formed Directorate of Investments, SME Development and EU Funds Management.
"Significant support in monitoring the implementation of the defined measures will be provided by the Council for MMSP, whose establishment is planned after the adoption of the Strategy, and on the basis of which the Ministry of Economy will prepare annual reports on the implementation of the action plans and submit to the Government for adoption," he said.
At the end of 2020, the evaluation and eventual revision of the document will be carried out.
"After the end of the period foreseen for the implementation of the Strategy, i.e. at the end of 2022, a final evaluation will be carried out, which will include an implementation analysis, as well as recommendations, conclusions, lessons learned and best practice regarding its implementation," said Babic. The public invitation for the participation in the Public Debate on the Strategy for Development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in Montenegro for the period 2018-2022, with the Framework Action Plan, was announced on June 25 and will last until July 16.
Text by Z.N., on July 10th 2018, read more at CdM
