Small Enterprise Development in MACEDONIA

Small Enterprise Development
• Implementing financial and non-financial support measures for the
SME sector.
At the moment, APPRM has a staff of seven and operates on an annual budget
of ca. € 135,000. Both the staff and the budget of the agency should be enhanced
in view of the emerging challenges of the EU accession process, the increasing
levels of competition for the SME sector in both the domestic and the EU markets,
and the complex tasks of accessing IPA funds and other EU support.
c) Policy Coordination and Public – Private Consultation
Two key bodies have been developed to ensure collaboration and coordination
between the public and the private sector in the implementation of the SME
Strategy and Programme:
• The SME Forum was established in 2005/2006 as a platform for a publicprivate
dialogue in regard of the design and implementation of the SME
policy. The members of SME Form include the MoE and APPRM, the
Economic Chamber, the Union of Chambers, the NW Chamber, the Crafts
Chamber, NECC, MASIT, several business associations, and a number of
bilateral Chambers as observers.
The SME Forum focuses on all issues – political, strategic, legal, regulatory
and other – that are of importance to the SME Sector. Working Groups
have been established for (i) ICT and Competitiveness, (ii) promotion of
entrepreneurship, (iii) contributions to the new Strategy and Programme.
The SME Forum has organized over 15 meetings in 2006 to discuss
various aspects of SME development and contributes directly to SME policy
making.
For 2007, the SME Forum plans a number of concrete initiatives that will
address important issues for the SME sector. The Forum will – in cooperation
with MoE and APPRM – launch an Entrepreneurship Awareness Campaign,
start a “GoDigital” programme for the SME sector, and will promote technology
transfer and alternative financing instruments for the SME sector.
• The National Entrepreneurship and Competitiveness Council (NECC)
was established in 2004 as a link between the Government and the business
community; NECC thus represents business interests in general, not just
those of SMEs. The mission of NECC is to promote a long-term partnership
between the public sector, private sector organisations and civil society, and
contribute through this to the economic prosperity of the country. NECC’s
primary goals are (i) to prepare recommendations for improving the business
environment; (ii) to assist individual companies, enterprise clusters and
business associations to develop; (iii) to promote exports of high value
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