The Global Entrepreneurship Week 2009, shall be held for the second time in Macedonia from 16^th till 22^nd of November. The celebration of enterprises and entrepreneurship event will incorporate different activities taken by more than 30 organizations in the country. In order to achieve the common goal of involving lots of young established and potential entrepreneurs to unleash their ideas, the activities will take place in 10 cities. This year’s hosts are Youth Entrepreneurial Service Foundation (www.yesincubator.org.mk) and Agency for Promotion of Entrepreneurship of the Republic of Macedonia (APERM) www.apprm.gov.mk.

Besides the events which directly foster entrepreneurship, two very important project results will be presented on 19^th and 20^th of November.

Investment Readiness

On Thursday, 19^th of November, several guest speakers will share their experience on topic: Investment Readiness of micro, small and medium size enterprises (MSMEs) in Seven Countries in Southeast Europe.

Objectives

 a) level of current readiness of MSMEs in seven countries in Southeast Europe, Bulgaria, Romania, Montenegro, Serbia,   Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo, for BA and VCF investment, and,

  b) to identify the factors behind the (assumed) poor level of readiness, and to propose recommendations for improving the readiness of MSMEs in the target countries for BA and VCF investment.

Research form

• desk research on the topic;
• phone interviews with each country’s business angel network/venture capital fund/banks/universities/business incubator managers/directors of technological parks;
• survey questionnaire for micro, small and medium enterprises in each country;

Final outcome

Comprehensive comparative report on investment readiness of MSMEs in 7 countries of Southeast Europe, with analysis of the situation at present, and recommendations for policy measures for promotion of equity investment, that is to be presented as part of the Global Entrepreneurship Week 2009, in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia.    

East East: Partnership Beyond Borders Program

Project: Business Incubators - Success model for creating favourable environment for local and regional development

The second project presentation will be held on 20^th of November. The project addresses young entrepreneurs and policy and decision makers. Invited guests are representatives of the countries which participate in the project research: Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Croatia, Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro.

The main goal of the project is to raise public awareness about the role of business incubators in providing new opportunities for employment among youth and development of small and medium sized businesses and entrepreneurship in the region.

Objectives:

In order to meet these objectives, business incubators in the above mentioned countries, answered questionnaires divided in two groups: for business incubators and for companies-tenants of business incubators. At the same time, a web portal was created and “fed” with the information from the questionnaires. This action will enable companies and incubators to create reports involving different parameters and become more aware of their own performance and that of other organizations.  

Final outcome

Innovation centers from the SEE region will network and share best practices, joint methodology and experiences. On the other hand client companies could be presented and promoted at the SEE market for possible cooperation, expansion and matchmaking.