Entrepreneurial Fair opened in Belgrade
The 8th International Entrepreneurship Fair "Business Base" and the Trade Fair of Youth Entrepreneurship, which gather over 300 local and foreign exhibitors, were opened today (November 26, 2009) at the Belgrade Fair.
The Minister of Economy of Serbia, Mlađan Dinkić, said at the opening of "Business Base" that about 1m people in Serbia worked in the SME sector and made a living from it.
According to his words, if we exclude the finance sector, 60% of gross national product (GNP) is created by small and mid-sized enterprises.
Dinkić said that 500m EUR worth of 9,500 subsidized loans for liquidity had been granted to small and mid-sized enterprises in 2009.
- The state does not want to slow down the development of small and mid-sized enterprises, but to help them reduce the costs of operations and bureaucracy - said Dinkić and announced that the state was not going to increase taxes in order to make the operations in the economy sector easier.
In addition to small and mid-sized enterprises, "Business Base" has also gathered some large corporations and public sector, and the largest international organization that promotes entrepreneurship and helps the work of SME in more than 40 countries - European Entrepreneurship Network - will present itself in Serbia for the first time.
The aim of "Business Base" is to promote SME and entrepreneurship, as well as the manners in which that sector of economy can be helped.
The European Entrepreneurship Network project exists in Serbia since June 2009, and its aim is to make SME better informed on the operations in European Union, as well as to provide help in the exchange of technologies and establishment of direct connections between the entrepreneurs.
Within the scope of that project, there will be over 150 meetings between the representatives of regional food industry at the Fair, with the participation of companies from Croatia, Slovakia, Greece, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
"Business Base" will be open between 10 AM and 7 PM, and the price of individual ticket is 200 RSD, while the ticket for group visits costs 150 RSD. The price of parking per hour is 50 RSD.