The final conference of the Continuum project was held

The final conference of the Continuum project, organized by the Regional Agency for Development and European Integration Belgrade - RAREI, was held on 26. May 2017, in the Crown Plaza Hotel - Exhibition Hall starting at 1:00 p.m.

The Continuum project was implemented by RAREI Belgrade with the financial support of the Development Agency of Serbia, as part of the Business Institutional Infrastructure Support Program 2016.

Project Goal - Contribution to sustainability, better strategic positioning and creating a competitive advantage for beginners in business.

Project participants - 19 "start-up" companies, which received financial support from the Development Agency of Serbia, the Ministry of Economy and the Development Fund of the Republic of Serbia in 2016.

The entrepreneurs were first addressed by the director of RAREI Belgrade, Snežana Radinović, who welcomed all participants and those present, and then emphasized the need for strong financial and non-financial support for business beginners. Statistics show that over 60% of "start up" companies shut down in the first year of operation. The idea of ​​this project was to give those companies, through various trainings and workshops, the opportunity to acquire new knowledge and skills, in order to maintain and survive in the market. The beneficiaries of this project are 19 "start-up" companies, which in 2016 received financial support from the Regional Agency of Serbia or the Development Fund.

With the support of RAREI Belgrade, 266 economic entities received financial resources in 2016 (grant and loans). For all programs, the total amount of approved funds is 201,921,068.47 RSD.

In 2017, there is great interest in the support programs of the Development Agency of Serbia, the Ministry of Economy and the Development Fund. RAREI Belgrade received over 320 requests for funding "start up" ideas and over 180 requests for support of existing MSMEs for various programs at the recently concluded competition of the Development Agency of Serbia - support for business beginners.

Director of the Regional Development Sector at the Development Agency of Serbia, Slobodan Petrović, addressed the entrepreneurs and wished them good luck and success in their further work, thanked and congratulated RAREI Belgrade on a successfully implemented project.

On behalf of the City of Belgrade, Dragomir Petronijević, member of the City Council and president of the Employment Council of the City of Belgrade, addressed the beginners in business.

Mr. Petronijević pointed out that the city of Belgrade is there to create the conditions and help young entrepreneurs realize their ideas, and that they are the ones who will enable them to strengthen financially and do what they love in their country and for their country. Today, in the city of Belgrade, we have a science and technology park on Zvezdara, which was called the "ghost building", and now it is called the "idea factory". Also, we have 450 active construction sites. And we may not have succeeded in everything, but we have a decade of entrepreneurship in front of us, in which programs continue, which are modified and adapted to the business market from year to year. We have progressed as a city, but in order to go one step further, we need you, with your ideas and entrepreneurial spirit, to continue walking and we thank you for your cooperation.

The key products/services of 19 companies participating in the project were also presented at the conference and certificates were awarded to them.