Strategies of the Development of Entrepreneurship and SME

development instrument is extremely low among entrepreneurs. The new plan for opening 20new incubators in the next four years may change this perception, but with quality and not justquantity of the business incubators being the deciding factor.Romania has a long way to go in order to bring the entrepreneurs image with thegeneral public to European and international standards. Another gap to be filled in is the lack ofinformation on the SME sector on existing training programmes that NASMEC and other publicinstitutions are developing. Communication and cooperation need also to be strengthened inthis field. Training is vital for a solid SME sector in Romania.In spite of a solid economic growth, Romania has made little progress in the field ofhuman resources, given that economic growth needs to be sustained by an increase in thenumber of employees, within labor productivity growth. The evolution of employment rate isinfluenced by the flow of foreign investments, which are most likely to produce new jobs, andby the continuation of the restructuring and privatization process that is putting pressure onemployment. Also, in spite of a relatively high economic growth, the labor market is stillstrained, mostly due to structural unemployment. In this context, new solutions are needed toimprove entrepreneurs’ performance.3.4. SERBIA3.4.1. SME SECTOR DEVELOPMENTDuring the 1990s SMEs in Serbia faced many economic problems: unsolved propertyrelations according to the previous legal regulations, chronic lack of funds and instability ofregulations on transactions and investments in economy, undefined macroeconomiccoordination, non-entrepreneurial management of economy, undefined subjectivity of risk,motivation…. As a result, the position of small and medium enterprises and entrepreneursbecame unfavourable in this region. Democratic changes at the end of 2000. led to conductionof many reforms, establishment of maceoeconomic stability, achievment of sustainableeconomic growth, beginning of privatization and restructuring processes and co-operation withthe European Union. During the period from 2001 to 2005 Serbian economy obtained high rateof gross domestic income growth – average annual rate of growth was about 5.5%.Due to the macroeconomic conditions, importance of SME activity has been constantlygrowing in the last six years.The Serbian Government adopted Strategy for Development ofSmall and Medium-Sized Enterprises and Entrepreneurship in the Republic of Serbia 2003–2008. The establishment of framework for sustainable, international competitive and exportoriented sector of small and medium enterprises and enterpreneurship in the next five yearswas set as an objective of the Strategy. According to this objective, the Serbian Governmentdefined the main strategic goals of SME development:• Increase in total number of small and medium enterprises and enterpreneurs from270,000 (in 2002.) to 400,000 ( in 2008).• Creation of over million new workplaces in SME sector.The role of SMEs in Serbian economy and achievments of Strategy implamentation canbe summarized as follows, according to data of Ministry of Economy, Republic of Serbia, issuedin Report on Small and Medium Enterprises and Enterpreneurship for 2005:• Number of SMEs (including both – companies and enterpreurers) exceeds 276,000(97.5% of total enterprises): 266,000 micro SMEs, 8,000 small SMEs and 2,000medium SMEs. According to the latest data of the Agency for Commercial Registers93,428 enterprises (large, medium-sized, small, micro) and 198,547 entrepreneurs54