Eda, in cooperation with the Foreign Trade Chamber of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and with the support of the Embassy of Sweden in Bosnia and Herzegovina through the project “Advanced Implementation of the Small Business Act in BiH2EU – SBA in BiH2EU” organized the 7th Annual Conference on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), titled “SME NEXT – From (Un)Learned Lessons to Crisis as an Opportunity.”
The conference brought together around 70 representatives of international organizations and projects, domestic institutions and business support organizations, universities, and company directors.
Ms. Eva Smedberg, Head of Development Cooperation at the Embassy of Sweden in BiH, emphasized the following on this occasion:
“Sweden supports Bosnia and Herzegovina to develop strategic and policy frameworks for small and medium enterprises. This is important for the economic integration with EU and thus an important part of the support is to help BiH enterprises to become more competitive by introducing appropriate standards and innovations while facilitating their transition to smarter and more sustainable business models. Sweden will continue to support Bosnia and Herzegovina to further its economic and social development towards full integration to the European Union”.
Zdravko Miovčić, Director of Eda, noted that this is the 7th annual conference organized by Eda with the support of Sweden, and stated:
“The goal of this conference is to reflect on the results, learned and unlearned lessons regarding policies and instruments supporting the sustainable development of SMEs that emerged from the project “Advanced Implementation of the Small Business Act in BiH2EU – SBA in BiH2EU”. Additionally, the aim is to confront perspectives on new challenges facing SMEs in the context of global political and economic crises and to address the question of whether, and how, a crisis can be used as an opportunity for transforming SMEs and the economy in BiH.”
Zdravko Marinković, Vice President of the Foreign Trade Chamber of BiH, stated that the Chamber is implementing a number of important projects for BiH companies:
“The Chamber is currently implementing several projects based on various principles and roles, all sharing the same goal – improving the operations of BiH companies. Most of these projects, carried out in cooperation with international donors, focus on enhancing the competitiveness of SMEs and supporting their internationalization,” said Marinković, adding that several significant projects have been implemented in partnership with Eda.
“Among them is the establishment of a dedicated subpage for internationalization, where SMEs can find all necessary information in one place, as well as the project ‘Preparing SMEs for the Introduction of Quality Standards for Business Internationalization’, which resulted in 19 BiH companies from various industries meeting the requirements for implementing one of the project’s proposed standards” Marinković highlighted.
During the conference, three panel discussions were held on the topics of strategic and operational planning and harmonization of SME policies; support instruments for implementation and monitoring and evaluation systems; and challenges and solutions for achieving systemic SME competitiveness in BiH under crisis conditions.
Participants had the opportunity to contribute their experiences, opinions, and suggestions toward finding more effective forms of support for the sustainable development of small and medium enterprises in BiH.
Watch media statements and the atmosphere from the conference here.
