Free mentoring service of great importance for businessmen

BELGRADE, May 21, 2020: The Development Agency of Serbia (RAS) has announced a public call for the implementation of a standardized mentoring service, which is published in accordance with the Program of the Ministry of Economy - Standardized set of services (SSU) for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurs in 2020, which is implemented through accredited regional development agencies (ARRA).

The public call is open until July 3, 2020, the total budget is 6,000,000.00 dinars, and the deadline for the completion of the project is December 31, 2020.

The goal of the project is to provide business entities with all possible support for development and further progress, and to reduce the number of business entities and cooperatives operating unsuccessfully in Serbia.

Mentoring is a free service intended for micro, small, medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurs, as well as cooperatives, and involves working with an expert mentor for a minimum of 25 and a maximum of 50 hours during the project. In this period, the mentor will diagnose all the problems of the service users and a plan for solving the problems and further development of the business entity will be created through the joint work of the businessman and the mentor.

The mentoring service is provided by 70 certified mentors from 17 accredited regional development agencies, and so far around 2,500 users have expressed their satisfaction with the mentoring service and assessed that the service helped them in their business.
The mentoring process takes place according to the RAS methodology, developed in long-term cooperation with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Three categories of users can apply for free mentoring:
• Business entities which have just been established and are no older than 3 years from the date of publication of the Public Call;
• Business entities that were registered before May 2017;
• Cooperatives

The following have the right to participate in the public call for mentoring services:

Micro, small and medium-sized companies and entrepreneurs, who meet the following conditions:
 registered in the territory of the Republic of Serbia;
 have settled obligations based on taxes and contributions;
 do not perform activities within the military industry and do not organize games of chance/lottery.

Cooperatives that meet the following conditions:
 that the cooperative is oriented towards supporting MSME and the founding act clearly defines this; contribution;
 not to perform activities within the military industry and not organize games of chance/lottery.

Public invitation, Instructions and application forms are available on the RAS website, www.ras.gov.rs, as well as on the websites of accredited development agencies (ARRA) and in printed form in ARRA. Applications with all accompanying forms and documentation are submitted in person or by registered mail to ARRA with the indication: Application for public call for mentoring services in 2020.

For more detailed information, you can contact RAS at e-mail: mentoringssu2020@ras.gov.rs or at phone number: 011/3398 809.