Strategies of the Development of Entrepreneurship and SME

promoting SME sector, cooperation with international organizations and institutions andinitiating numerous project of importance for SME development and organizing and providing awide range of consulting services.In the Republic of Serbia, for the last couple of years, a great deal has been done in thefield of development of business information, advisory and consultancy services. One of thefeatures related to these services in the previous period was inaccessibility to information andunreliability of data which could be found in different places and with different institutions.Since there was no proper cooperation, coordination and information links among theinstitutions, obtaining reliable information was a big problem.In the field of information and consulting the Agency for Development of SMEs had animportant role; it developed the, so called, “entrepreneurial service” through the network of itsregional offices. The main purpose of the service was to provide legal and financial consultingservices to potential and existing entrepreneurs. In 2005 the largest number of questionsrelated to the possibilities of obtaining financial assets, credits, resources for privatization,agricultural credits, Guarantee Fund services, assistance in drawing up financial parts ofbusiness plans, etc.The field of legal consulting provided by the Agency for Development of SMEs concernsthe following questions:• offering information about legal business form,• acquiring the status of an entrepreneur and enterprise establishing,• necessary documents for registration,• special preconditions for particular business activities,• possibility of foreign trade,• foreign exchange regulations,• import charges,• tax relief,• Labour Law,• social issues, etc.The other services in the field of information and consulting, worth mentioning are:• providing information about the choice of business activities,• possibilities of market research home and abroad,• possibilities of providing business premises under favourable conditions,• purchasing of machines and equipment, etc.One of the particularly important services offered to entrepreneurs and owners of SMEsthat should be pointed out are the education programmes. They are organized by manyinstitutions – Agency for Development of SMEs, Serbian Chamber of Commerce through thenetwork of its branch offices, The National Employment Service, Serbian Investment andExport Promotion Agency (SIEPA) and several scientific institutes. Educational programmeshave very diversified concepts depending on the foreknowledge and needs of the participants.Serbian Investment and Export Promotion Agency – SEIPA must be pointed out asa particularly important body for providing information and consulting services – it providesnumerous services to foreign as well as domestic entrepreneurs in considering possibilities ofinvesting in Serbia and opportunities for exporting Serbian products into foreign countries.The National Employment Service has main aim to increase the competitiveness andemployability of labor force and employment through the system of active labor market policymeasures. It also must be pointed out as an important body for giving incentives forentrepreneurship development. The activities on initiating and development of60