Minister of European Integration Jadranka Joksimović said she expects Serbia to open more than one negotiating chapter, including the ones related to the economy, by the end of 2018.
“Sustainable development of Serbia is the main task of the European integration process and sustainable development is not possible without small and medium-sized enterprises, the backbone of any of the most developed European regions, Jadranka Joksimović said at the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Enterprise Europe Network.
She said that the EU allocated EUR2.3 billion in support of SMEs and underlined that good coordination, communication and ideas form the basis for accessing the EU funds. SMEs account for some 58 per cent of Serbia’s GDP, she said.
Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Sem Fabrizi said that Brussels offered support for SMEs and that companies should be connected and learn how to manage the domestic and international markets. The market in Serbia is already connected to the European, and the EU remains the biggest investor in Serbia, Fabrizi said.
President of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce Marko Čadež said that 17,000 Serbian SMEs have benefitted from the services offered by the Enterprise Europe Network. Thanks to the Network, over 300 companies have signed contracts with foreign partners, took their products or services to the international market or strengthened their position in markets where they had already been doing business.
I hope that in the following months we will manage to turn the region into a more stable place for doing business. It doesn’t seem so at the moment, Čadež said, adding that Serbia is going through possibly “one of the toughest periods when it comes to economic cooperation in the region.” He noted that “makers of unilateral decisions on taxes should come to their senses and stop breaching agreements due to the lack of understanding of how the economy works.”