Projects

PHARE 2005 - Small Projects Programme

Project Title: "Croatian Small Business and EU Challenge: danger or hope?"

Organization Responsible for the Project: SMEs and Entrepreneurship Policy Center - CEPOR

The "Croatian Small Business and EU Challenge: danger or hope?" project focuses on providing information about the advantages and disadvantages of the European Union single market for the small and medium-sized enterprise sector. The low level of awareness about the European Union within the sector has contributed to their either neutral or negative attitude toward Croatia's accession to the EU.

Project will disseminate information about the EU challenges for the SME sector, focusing on the most competitive and promising segment of this sector – entrepreneurs with growth and export potential. Subject of the project will be more than just the EU single market and the importance it has for entrepreneurs; the focus will be on policies and instruments that are used in the EU with the goal of making this sector more competitive, innovative, and to help it base its competences on knowledge. Many Croatian entrepreneurs are not aware of the measures being implemented by the EU in order to bring the SME sector on equal footing with the big companies – fair market competition, investing in education, research and development, simplifying the regulatory framework, stimulating different forms of financing, and enforcing payment discipline, and the aim of this project is to change that so our entrepreneurs can be well prepared once Croatia becomes a member of the European Union.

Project is being implemented in five regions: Zagreb, Šibenik, Osijek, Pula and Čakovec.

Five three-day seminars and five public forums for entrepreneurs with growth and export potential will be organized during 12 months. At the "ABC of Business in the European Union" seminars, entrepreneurs will be briefed on: EU's policies and instruments towards the small and medium-sized enterprise sector, importance of innovations, knowledge and growth, business environment in the EU, available financial opportunities, standards of quality, how to sell yourself and how to find a business partner in the EU.

Entrepreneurs from local communities who are already exporting to the EU will speak about their experience. We also plan to involve journalists in the project, in order to make them understand the importance of this sector for economic growth of the country. Besides journalists, we will also involve local government units into project activities.

All activities will be promoted through the www.cepor.hr web page. Partners in the project are Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Faculty of Economics in Osijek and Center for Entrepreneurship Osijek. Value of the project is 49,952.04 Euro. Delegation of the European Commission finances the project with 39,956.64 Euro, while the financial share of CEPOR and partners amounts to 9,995.4 Euro.

On January 22, at the 2nd Convention of Croatian Exporters, Professor Slavica Singer held a presentation titled Increasing Competitiveness in Production of Primary Materials and Components for Complex Products.
Download presentation (pdf, 255 Kb).

On April 23, 2007 at the University of Rijeka, Faculty of Economics, Professor Slavica Singer held a workshop titled: Knowledge, Innovations, Growth - Formula for Entrepreneurial Success, which is a part of the "Croatian Small Business and EU Challenge: danger or hope?" project, financed by the European Commission. Professor Slavica Singer is UNESCO Chair for Entrepreneurship. Besides Rijeka, public forums will be held in Čakovec, Osijek, Šibenik and Zagreb.
Download presentation (pdf, 864 Kb).

You can read the report and look at the photographs from the public forum held in Osijek here.