Promoting entrepreneurship is crucial to the reduction of poverty and economic development in the Western Balkans. By acting on market opportunities, entrepreneurs create and develop businesses that drive economic growth and provide the jobs that people need. However, the entrepreneurial spirit and the skills to start a business are often lacking in the Western Balkans. The education system too often fails to encourage young people to develop entrepreneurial ideas and skills. At the same time, numerous regulatory and bureaucratic obstacles discourage potential entrepreneurs from opening businesses and prevent growth in existing businesses. 

Addressing these issues, SPARK supports 5 Business Start-Up Centres in South East Europe. These centers are run as joined undertakings by Ministries, local governments, Chambers of Commerce and Universities and are part of the South East European Network for Start-up Centres and Incubators (SENSI). This project is supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2007-2010).

What the BSCs do:

• Support young and potential entrepreneurs to start up their own business
• Offer practical training courses, consultancy as well as micro credits and incubation services for start-ups
• Actively engage in lobbying activities to ease legislation for setting up new businesses
• Promote entrepreneurship as part of curricula in higher education
  

*Beneficiary: 1 person that completed 1 training course (average 20 hours)
**On a scale of 1-10 where 10 is the highest quality

Download the Project Outline/Interim Financial Report 2007.

Visit Transparkency to see the financial information for this project.

	BSC Kragujevac - Serbia   Trg Topolivac 4 34000 Kragujevac Phone: +381-34-502-510 E-Mail:  n.simic@bsckragujevac.org http://www.bsckragujevac.org/
BSC Bitola - Macedonia Faculty for Technical sciences-Bitola Str. Ivo Lola Ribar No. bb 7000, Bitola, Macedonia Phone/Fax: +389 (0)47 207 765 r.hristovska@bscbitola.org www.bscbitola.org
	BSC Bar  - Montenegro III sprat - Vladimira Rolovica 15 Zgrada Urbanizma 85000, Bar, Montenegro Phone/Fax: +381 (0)85 313 712 mailto:i.i.tomasevic@bscbar.org http://www.bscbar.org/
BSC Zenica - Bosnia & Herzegovina   Faculty of Metallurgy and Materials Science - Zenica Travnicka Cesta 1 72 000 Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina Phone: +387 32 201 230 n.serdarevic@bsczenica.org http://www.bsczenica.org/
	BSC Kosovo - UNMIK/Kosovo Str. Mother Theresa, No. 20 10000 Pristina, Kosovo Phone/Fax: +381 (0)38 247 982 mailto:b.bajrami@bsckosovo.org http://www.bsckosovo.org/ Financial reports of BSC Kosovo: Interim Report October 2006 - March 2007 Interim Report April 2007 - December 2007