The first European Entrepreneur’s Day was held in Macedonia

“We need more entrepreneurial spirit”

 

This year the manifestation “European Entrepreneur’s Day” was held for the first time in Macedonia. On 9th and 10th May, at the Skopje Fair, 11 seminars were held where about 50 speakers addressed more than 500 present. 60 companies from the countries in the region took part at the entrepreneurship fair (Serbia and Montenegro, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia), as well as organizations for support of entrepreneurship.

Organizers of the manifestations were the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Macedonia, the City of Skopje, the Agency for Entrepreneurship Support of the Republic of Macedonia, the European Business Association, the Macedonian Enterprise Development Association, the Academic Training Association, supported by the European Commission Delegation.

 

How was the idea developed?

“We started the project in June 2005”, says Dimitar Ristovski, manager of the European Business Association, one of the organizers of the “European Entrepreneur’s Day”. “After we had received the support by the European Commission Delegation and the City of Skopje, we found out that the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Macedonia, together with the Academic Training Association from Holland had been planning to celebrate the Europe’s Day by organizing an entrepreneurship fair of entrepreneurs from Southeast Europe. Taking into consideration how similar our ideas were, we agreed to organize the event together”, says Ristovski.

Then some other supporters of the manifestation got involved. “As a result of the previous positive experience, the Macedonian Enterprise Development Foundation got involved in the organization of this event”, says Tatjana Lazarevska from MEDF. “We thought it was going to be an excellent opportunity to share our so far experiences and tackle the issues that were bottlenecks in entrepreneurs’ work”, she adds.

The European Business Association received the right of using the logo and the title of the event “European Entrepreneur’s Day”.

The objective of the event is to develop entrepreneurship and to enable a place where governmental institutions, local self-government and entrepreneurs will talk about policies of developing entrepreneurship.

 

What did the manifestation offer?

The European Entrepreneur’s Day had two parts, a forum part and an exhibition part. In the first part participants and visitors had an opportunity to hear about European policies of entrepreneurship support and development, entrepreneurial learning, a cluster approach towards entrepreneurship development, entrepreneurship in local self-government, opportunities of financing small and medium enterprises, the ways of increasing export in the EU by improving the quality, innovation, promotion and standardization, then about increasing cross-border cooperation by elimination of trade barriers etc.

In the exhibition part about sixty companies from the region had an opportunity to show what they do and to make contacts for future cooperation. “We found out about the fair from ATA that also covered our transport costs and accommodation costs in Skopje”, says Bajram Binaku from the Beer Factory in Pek, one of the companies that exposed their products on the European Entrepreneur’s Day. “We, as a company regularly take part in such events and this has been our third time in Skopje. The aim of our participation is to make contacts with entrepreneurs from the region and to place our product again, taking into consideration the fact that our Pek beer used to be very famous. We are pleased with our presentation both by ourselves and the organizer”, added Binaku.

“Abakus Komerc” also participated in the exhibition part of the European Entrepreneur’s Day. “We thought that the fair was an excellent opportunity for the companies and other organizations that have a need for printing informative materials to become familiar with our work. Our remark refers to the space division in which the organizations and companies presented themselves, in our opinion a unique space would have been more productive for us, but that’s it”, said Ljuben Saraginovski, graphic designer in “Abakus komerc”. They expect 3-5% of the total realized contacts to give further business results.

 

What further?

“I think that we have done a great job”, says Dimitar Ristovski from the European Business Association. “Maybe we acted ambitiously, but we have realized our plans. The first reactions from the exhibitors and participants are positive and it is really encouraging us”, he adds.

“The idea is to establish this event as traditional, to be aware of its existence. We would like students and young unemployed people to become an objective of this event”, says Ristovski and he adds: “But we would also like young people’s mentality to change, they should become aware of the fact that they should find a job and not wait for someone else to find it for them. That is why I think that a change of awareness is necessary and we need more entrepreneurial spirit.

 

The first event in Barcelona

The organization of the European Entrepreneur’s Day has been initiated by Eurocities, European network of cities. The European Commission supported the idea. After the completion of the phase where ideas were collected from the members of Eurocities and using the advantages of the original event “El Dia del Emprendor” whose host was Barcelona, Spain, the European Entrepreneur’s Day started spreading all over Europe. The basic idea of the Day is to promote entrepreneurship not only locally, but also to promote regional and international cooperation.

In Europe this event is organized in almost all capital European cities – Barcelona, Munich, Oslo, Stockholm, Milan, Berlin…In the neighborhood this event is organized in Sofia and Zagreb, and now in Skopje, too.

 

“Opportunities for financing SME”

In one of the sessions held within the European Entrepreneur’s Day, organized by the  Macedonian Enterprise Development Foundation, the following data were presented: In the course of 2005 out of the total available funds for crediting entrepreneurs in amount of 397 million Euro, 352 million Euro was distributed, or 11%. This is good data if we compare it to 2000 and 2001 when 44% of the available funds were not distributed. However, what worries is the data which demonstrate “unequal access” to credit lines. More precisely, 70% of credits have been distributed in the Skopje region at the expense of other regions in the country and most of the users are micro-entrepreneurs (64% of the total number of users) that have had access to only 3,9% of the total amount of funds available for crediting.

These data will be good basis for creating future programs and activities of organizations and financial institutions that work in the small and medium enterprises sector.