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Innovation Infrastructures: Albania FINAL VERSION
Submission Date: July 22, 2011
The EU SME Project Albania 2009 – 2011: “Supporting SMEs to become more
competitive in the EU market”
Organisation title in local language: Projekti i BE “Mbështetje NVM-ve për t’u bërë më
konkurruese në tregun e BE”
The main goal of this project is to improve the competitiveness of the Albanian
private sector and strengthen the business environment for investment and
employment in Albania. For this purpose, the capacity of Ministry of Economy, Trade
and Energy (METE) and AIDA to develop, implement, and monitor Albanian SME
policy in order to provide entrepreneurship and innovation programmes to SMEs. The
project encompasses the following components:
Component Progress as in April 2011
Establishment of Albanian Business Relay And
Innovation Centre (BRIC)
Development of Albanian Business Innovation
and Technology Strategy (BITS)
Training Needs Analysis for Albanian SMEs
(development of methodology, review of existing
Business Service Providers, implementing
training needs analysis, etc.)
National competitiveness programme for SMEs
(review of existing Albanian SME
competitiveness training materials, programmes;
development of “competitiveness” training
modules; provision of competitiveness training
programmes; development of a National
Competitiveness Programme monitoring and
evaluation structure)
SME development programme (support and
technical assistance to METE within the scope
of the project, to improve the Albanian
participation in current and future programmes,
in developing new SME projects, etc.)
Innovation Support
The BRIC has been established
as a specific Division within the
Albanian Investment Development
Agency (see Fig. 3, page 20 and
description, page 35) and is
currently in the process of starting
its operational activity
The BITS and its respective
Action Plan (BITAP) have been
developed and adopted (see
Ministry of Economy, Trade and
Energy, 2011)
Concluded and published in 2010
(see EU SME Project Albania
2009 – 2011, 2010:2)
Currently ongoing, involving 5
Modules for SMEs and 7 Modules
for Trainers and Consultants. (see
EU SME Project Albania 2009 –
2011, 2010:1, “Participate!” and
“News” sections for more
information)
Currently ongoing
Dissemination level: Public
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