Milutin Djevic

Kragujevac's local government decided to locate the first local Business Innovation Center in the old Zastava medical building. For renovation of the building, 657,000 Euros will be invested from the National Investment Plan in the Business Innovation Center, officially marking the name of the incubator.

Business space
This is the same model of support to young entrepreneurs the Dutch government has started in Zenica, Bar, Bitola and Pristina, said Nebojsa Simic, director of Business Start-Up Center, Kragujevac.   Incubators, as parts of these projects, help beginners by providing business space at lower costs and technical support - such as accounting, administration, as well as professional manager's assistance.
There will be 25 working places for start-ups in Kragujevac's incubation center, the Dutch partner will select 16, while local partners will select 9 tenants.
"Last week we announced the open competition for the best business idea among young start-ups and those who are already in business, but have ideas to improve and increase it. Best ideas will be awarded, besides 4 business spaces per year, with 10 loans annually and 30 free registrations together with 100 hours of free consulting in business management, explained Mr. Simic. The value of the loan is from 1,000 to 10,000 Euros.
As Mr. Simic explained, it is known from experience that 50% of new businesses fail in the first year of operation, and up to 75% by the third year.  "But these people gain experience in case that the first business fails and start something else. The crucial thing is to gain knowledge and skills in business management."

In the Dutch model of start-up center, the key condition in selecting best business ideas is innovation, new products and services, which are not necessarily new in the world, but new in the local community. It is particularly important for young people from rural areas to apply with ideas not connected with the agriculture production but to new products and services. According to Mr. Simic, this will enable young people to live in rural areas but not to be engaged in agriculture production directly. This is very important having in mind that in modern developed economies 75% of working population is engaged in the field of services, around 22% in industrial production and only 3% in agriculture production. At the moment, in Serbia 33% of population earn for living in agriculture. Agriculture business ideas are acceptable if they are connected with processing or associated with activities which provide high added value to the products.
According to market surveys, an average enterprise in Serbia is an enterprise three years old and with seven employees who are supposed to be skilled in several jobs and have wide knowledge. This means that, besides the employers, employees are also forced to learn and gain new knowledge in order to keep their employability.
"Development of private business so far here was without much planning and any system. Entrepreneurs were forced to learn from experience and they usually engaged consultants only in case when there is already a problem. It is crucial to gain new knowledge since this is the century of economy based on knowledge. All projects similar to this one are oriented to knowledge transfer and skills development, good business idea is just the basis" said Mr. Simic.