The best mentors of Serbia were selected at the "Mentor Awards"

More than 2,000 micro, small and medium enterprises and entrepreneurs in Serbia have so far used the free services of mentors in order to improve their business, and today the three most successful mentors in 2017 were awarded. countries of the Western Balkans, Phase 2", presented to Ljiljana Marković from the Regional Agency for Development and European Integration Belgrade, Boban Kostadinović from the Regional Agency for the Development of Eastern Serbia "RARIS" and Ivan Mihajlović from the Regional Development Agency South.

The awarding of recognition and a two-day meeting of mentors is carried out by the Development Agency of Serbia (RAS) with the support of the Japanese Agency for International JICA cooperation.

The best mentors were chosen by the mentors themselves, based on data on sales growth, development and innovative achievements in the companies they trained. The main goal of the entire event is to exchange experiences from the field and find new ways to improve assistance to companies. The awards were designed by consultants from Japan and include the participation of all mentors from Serbia who worked directly with companies.

The awards were given by Hideo Kobayashi (JICA Balkan Office), Katarina Obradović Jovanović (assistant minister in the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Serbia), Ana Žegarac (Director of the Planning and Development Sector of the Development Agency of Serbia), JICA consultants from Japan: Takashi Kimura, Masashi Takano; Danijela Čabarkapa (executive director of the Japanese Business Alliance in Serbia).

During the first phase of the project, about 2,000 users in Serbia expressed their satisfaction with the mentoring service and assessed that the service helped them to review the current operations of their companies, investigate current problems and obstacles to progress, define potential for growth and create a strategy for further development. Currently, more than 50 accredited mentors are available to new users for Phase 2, who will face new challenges, but thanks to whose knowledge and experience many companies will improve their business.