The National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska adopted the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on the SMEs Development. Among other, the Draft enabled full harmonization of the SME definition with the Recommendation of the European Commission thus representing an important step in harmonizing with the Small Business Act – European framework for the development of SMEs.
Minister of Economy and Entrepreneurship of the Republic of Srpska, Mr. Vjekoslav Petričević recently stated that only the criteria for classification by number of employees have been harmonized so far, and from now on it will be harmonized financial criteria as well. The Amendments to the Law on the SMEs Development will provide to local businessmen an opportunity to access EU development funds.
The Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on the SMEs Development in the Republic of Srpska was prepared with the support of the project “European Small Business Act as a framework of SME strategies and policies in BiH – SBA in BiH”.
The objective of the project “European Small Business Act as a framework of SME strategies and policies in BiH – SBA in BiH” is to support institutions in BiH to accelerate economic integration with the EU in the field of SME strategic and policy framework, with higher impact on performances of SMEs in the country. Key stakeholders of the project are: The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH, the Ministry of Economy and Entrepreneurship of the Republic of Srpska, the Ministry of Development, Entrepreneurship and Crafts of the Federation of BiH, as well as the Department for Economic Development, Sports and Culture of the Brčko District.
The project SBA in BiH is funded by Sida through the Embassy of Sweden in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
