The ICIP (Improved SME Competitiveness and Innovation Project) has undertaken an in-depth analysis of the innovation and competitiveness support programmes in Serbia, aiming at raising awareness for strong policy coordination among main stakeholders to further adapt supporting tools in accordance with the needs of enterprises and business and innovation service providers.

In total nine SME innovation and competitiveness support programmes have been evaluated that are implemented by the Government of Serbia and managed by the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development (MoERD), Ministry of Science and Technological Development (MoSTD) – since March 2011 integrated within the Ministry of Education and Science (MoES) – and the National Agency for Regional Development (NARD). For the assessment of programmes a sample group of 67 enterprises in total were consulted by questionnaire and telephone contacts and in-depth interviews were held with managers of the support programmes.

The assessment of the innovation and competitiveness support programmes is conducted against the government strategy for development of competitive and innovative small and medium-sized enterprises and the related policy aims and expected intermediate results.

The assessment of programmes including the individual report formulation was undertaken by a team of the Mihajlo Pupin Institute, Belgrade, consisting of SE Prof. Djuro Kutlaca, PhD and JE Sanja Popovic-Pantic, MSc as well as other team members, Dusica Semencenko PhD, as MPI expert and technical support of Marija Mosurovic MSc and Zorica Mitrovic. The purpose of this Summary Report is to enhance the political dialogue between social partners on improved innovation support to the SME sector in Serbia. The Ministry of Economy and Regional Development leads the dialogue. The main contributors in this dialogue are the MoERD itself, the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Trade and Services, the Ministry of Finance, the National Agency for Regional Development, the Serbian Investment and Export Promotion Agency and the Inter-Ministerial SME Council.
The assessment was concluded by the workshop “Innovation for Competitiveness?” held on 29 September 2011, at the Mihailo Pupin Institute, discussing the key Assessment of Innovation Support Programmes Improved SME Competitiveness and Innovation. View and download presentation from the workshop at www.slideshare.net/prcommunication