Program to support women's entrepreneurship through the award of non-refundable financial assistance in 2014

The program is implemented by the National Agency for Regional Development (hereinafter: the National Agency) in cooperation with accredited regional development agencies.

Goal of the program

The main goal of the program is the development of female entrepreneurship through business harmonization with the requirements of international business standards, improvement of business processes, products and services and strengthening of human resources.

The purpose of the program is to provide support to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in which the participation of women in ownership is over 25%, and which at the same time manage business, as well as entrepreneurial activities whose founder is a woman, in improving business performance and position on the domestic and foreign markets. The program simultaneously promotes female entrepreneurship and the role of women in economic activities. Accordingly, the National Agency will support projects of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in which the participation of women in ownership is over 25%, which at the same time manage the business, as well as entrepreneurs whose founder is a woman, through participation in the financing of the costs of service providers, whereby grants will be approved for the following activities:

• organization of business in accordance with the requirements of international business standards (implementation of standards, certification, recertification) and marking of products "CE" sign; • improvement of existing and development of new technological processes; • improvement of existing and development of new products/services; • testing of new products; • development and implementation of specialized software; • new design of products and packaging; • electronic presentation of the company and • education of management and employees through specialized training.

Interested business entities can submit only one request for the award of grants and for only one of the offered activities.

For the selected activity, the company/entrepreneur hires a professional service provider who is responsible for the successful implementation of the proposed project. Service providers cannot be natural persons, but only legal persons and registered entrepreneurs.

Target group

The right to use grants are legal entities categorized as micro, small and medium-sized legal entities in accordance with Article 6 of the Law on Accounting, in which women own more than 25%, who at the same time manage the business, as well as entrepreneurs whose founder woman.

Legal framework

Mutual rights and obligations in connection with the refund of approved funds are determined by the Agreement concluded by the National Agency and the beneficiary of the funds and by the Agreement concluded by the beneficiary of the funds and the service provider.

Financial framework

Total funds available for the implementation of the Program amount to 7,000,000.00 dinars.

Funds are allocated to micro, small and medium enterprises and entrepreneurs in accordance with Art. 95 - 97 of the Regulation on the rules for granting state aid ("Official Gazette of RS", no. 13/2010, 100/2011, 91/2012, 37/2013 and 97/2013), as state aid of low value (de minimis state aid).

In accordance with Article 96 of the Regulation on the rules for granting state aid, the amount of The de minimis state aid granted to the beneficiary must not exceed 200,000.00 euros in dinar equivalent in the three-year fiscal period.

For the implementation of defined activities, funds are allocated in the amount of 50,000.00 to 300,000.00 dinars.

The national agency will, based on the contract with company/entrepreneur to refund the amount up to 75% of the total amount of justified project costs without VAT. The funds will be refunded to the company/entrepreneur after the completion of the project and the submission of proof of completed activities.

Time frame

The public call will be announced on June 6, 2014 and will last until July 11, 2014.

The program finances activities that were started in 2014, and were not completed by the time the public call was published. All payments in connection with the realization of project activities must be started in 2014 and cannot be completed until the moment of publication of the public call. The activities for which the funds have been approved, as well as all payments related to the realization of the same by the users of the funds, must be completed by November 25, 2014.

The national agency will inform all participants in writing about the results of the tender within 45 days from the date of the closing of the tender.

The deadline for the completion of the activities of the approved projects, as well as the realization of payments in connection with activities performed by the beneficiaries of the funds, is November 25, 2014.

Conditions for participation in the program

Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises owned and managed by women, as well as entrepreneurs whose founder is a woman, who cumulatively meet the following conditions:

• that the predominant activity of the economic entity is production or provision of services; • that they are mostly domestically owned and registered on the territory of the Republic of Serbia; • that the participation of a woman in the ownership amounts to more than 25% and that the woman simultaneously manages the operations of the company, that is, that the woman is the founder of the business; • that they were established no later than May 31, 2012; • to operate successfully for the previous two years; • that in December 2013, they employed a minimum of 2 persons for an indefinite period; • that they have settled their tax and contribution obligations; • that this year they did not use incentive funds from the National Agency and other state institutions on the same basis.

The funds cannot be used for programs implemented in:

• military and tobacco industry; • trade; • primary agriculture; • the financial sector; • organization of games of chance and lotteries.

Necessary documentation:

1. Completed, signed and certified application (Form 1); 2. Certificate from the competent tax administration that the applicant has settled all obligations based on taxes and contributions by the date of publication of the public invitation (the certificate must not be issued before June 6, 2014) - original or certified copy by the competent authority; 3. For business entities that keep business books according to the double-entry bookkeeping system - balance sheet, income statement and statistical annex for 2013 - a copy of the Certificate of Registration of the regular annual financial report for 2013; a copy of the tax return on calculated and paid contributions for mandatory social insurance on wages/remunerations certified by the tax administration for the month of December 2012 and 2013 (PP OD/PP OD-1 form).

For business entities that keep business books according to the simple bookkeeping system - a copy of the income statement (form BU) certified by the tax administration for 2012 and 2013. a year; a copy of the tax return on the calculated and paid contributions for mandatory social insurance on wages/remunerations certified by the tax administration for December 2012 and 2013 (PP OD/PP OD-1 form).

For flat-rate taxpayers - a copy of the book on the realized turnover of flat-rate tax payers on income from self-employment (KPO form) signed and certified by by the authorized person for 2012; a copy of the tax return for the final determination of tax on income from self-employment certified by the tax administration for the year 2013 (form PPDG-1P); a copy of the decision on flat-rate taxation for 2013; a copy of the tax return on calculated and paid contributions for mandatory social insurance on wages/remunerations certified by the tax administration for the month of December 2012 and 2013 (PP OD/PP OD-1 form).

In the event of a change in the legal form/bookkeeping system of the business entity, it is necessary to submit financial reports in accordance with the form of organization/bookkeeping system for 2012 and 2013.

4. Signed and certified written statement of the applicant on acceptance of the conditions for the allocation of funds (Form 2); 5. A signed and certified written statement on the granted state aid of small value (de minimis state aid) (Form 3); 6. The offer of the service provider certified and signed by the bidder, which contains a clearly defined scope of activities, the deadline for implementation and the price of the services expressed in dinars, with: • references of the consulting company and • biography of the engaged consultants; 7. If applying for the education of management and employees through specialized trainings, attach to the application also the biographies of the employees who will attend the training (formal education of the employee, job title, tasks performed at the workplace, etc.).

The national agency reserves the right to, if necessary, request additional documentation from the user, but only for complete requests.

Procedure upon complaint

Participants in the funding allocation procedure have the right to object. The objection is submitted within eight days from the date of receipt of the notification of the results of the submitted request to the Sector for the Development of Business Companies and Entrepreneurship - the Commission. The Director of the National Agency, taking into account the report of the Commission, as the first-instance body, decides on the complaint within 15 days from the day of receiving the complaint.

Program implementation procedure

The National Agency for Regional Development creates the Program and designs criteria, documentation and implementation mechanisms.

1. The National Agency publishes a public call for participation in the support program and publishes an advertisement in at least one printed media that is distributed throughout the territory of the Republic of Serbia and on the website of the National Agency. The public call contains information about the Program: data on the amount of funds to be allocated, conditions for submitting an application, as well as the addresses of accredited regional development agencies. 2. Requests with accompanying documentation are submitted to regional development agencies. Regional development agencies promote the program, provide information and professional assistance in the preparation of documentation for participation in the public call, and receive requests with accompanying documentation, which are successively forwarded to the National Agency. 3. The Director of the National Agency makes a decision on the formation of the Working Group and the Committee for the evaluation and selection of requests for the allocation of grants (hereinafter: the Committee). The commission checks and analyzes the received documentation, which it evaluates and selects according to established criteria. The minimum number of points necessary for a company/entrepreneur to qualify for the allocation of funds is 70. In the event that the available budget of the Program is not sufficient for all applicants who meet the qualification threshold of 70 points, the funds will be allocated according to the ranking list until they are used up, and the qualification threshold will be moved up accordingly. Requests from companies/entrepreneurs, which do not qualify for the allocation of funds due to the insufficient budget of the Program, will be placed on a reserve list that will be activated if certain conditions are subsequently met: • In the event that during the signing of the contract on the allocation of funds with the National Agency, one of the selected candidates withdraws; • If additional funds are provided for the implementation of the Program; • In the event that the available budget is not distributed, candidates from the reserve list, according to the number of points achieved, will be invited to sign the contract on the allocation of funds with the National Agency

4. Based on the criteria, the number of applications and the total available funds, the Commission has the right to award the beneficiary an amount of funds that is lower than requested. The criteria for evaluating applications are: the importance of the proposed activity for the development of the company/entrepreneur, the success of the business/entrepreneur, the number of employees, the achieved growth of business indicators, the number of women employed in the business entity for an indefinite period in the previous year, the experience and available resources of the service provider and the level of development of the local self-government unit in which the company/entrepreneur is registered. 5. The National Agency informs the participants in writing about the results of the competition. 6. The National Agency invites selected micro, small and medium enterprises/entrepreneurs to sign the Agreement on the use of grant funds. The beneficiary of the funds is obliged to sign the Agreement with the selected service provider before the date of signing the Agreement with the National Agency and to submit a copy of that agreement to the National Agency. The elements of the offer/activity plan must remain the same regardless of whether the Commission has approved the maximum amount of funds or it has been reduced. In case the mentioned elements have been changed or a contract/activity plan has been attached with another activity implementer than the one with which the pre-contract was signed, i.e. whose offer was attached when submitting the request, the National Agency will not sign the contract with the selected beneficiary of the funds. 7. Selected micro, small and medium enterprises/entrepreneurs, after the implementation of the approved projects, submit to the National Agency a report on the activities carried out in accordance with the Agreement. The report must contain: proof of successfully completed activities, properly completed forms provided for in the Agreement, the service provider's invoice and a bank statement proving that the user of the funds has paid 100% of the value of the service to the service provider. 8. After analyzing the report, the National Agency refunds the funds in accordance with the Agreement and reserves the right not to pay the funds provided for in the Agreement to the beneficiary who submits an incomplete report or in any other way fails to fulfill contractual obligations. Public call for the allocation of grants within the Women's Entrepreneurship Support Program through the allocation of non-refundable financial assistance in 2014; 2. Instructions for the implementation of the Women's Entrepreneurship Support Program through the award of non-refundable financial assistance in 2014; 3. Rules for evaluating applications for the awarding of grants within the Women's Entrepreneurship Support Program through the awarding of non-refundable financial assistance in 2014; 4. Form 1 - Application for the Women's Entrepreneurship Support Program through the award of non-refundable financial assistance in 2014; 5. Form 2 - Statement of acceptance of the conditions for the allocation of funds; 6. Form 3 - Statement on the granted state aid of low value (de minimis state aid); 7. Form 4 - Request for payment (refund) of funds; 8. Form 5 - Financial identification card; 9. Form 6 - Form for monitoring the effects of activities; 10. Form 7 - Evaluation form.