On 23 and 24 November, in Mostar, the Federal Ministry of Development, Entrepreneurship and Crafts together with the German Society for International Cooperation - GIZ, organized a workshop, where the importance and the previous results of implementation of the SBA (Small Business Act - SBA for Europe) and future mode of operation and data collection were presented. The participants were representatives of the FBiH Office of Statistics, representatives of the cantons of the Federation of BiH and FBiH development agencies. The workshop was attended by a representative of the Federal Development Planning Institution.
On the first day, participants were welcomed by the Minister Amir Zukić. The importance of this workshop and future activities were talked about by the expert Ana Sindik on behalf of GIZ Organisation, a specialist from R Croatia for Small Business Act - SBA for Europe. Activities on the first day mainly focused on the expectations of future activities of the working group, which Ana Sindek most talked about.
On the second day, work was divided into several groups and the speech of the expert Ana Sindek mainly focused on the OECD's methodology for collecting data on SMEs.
The aim of the workshop was to present the ten basic dimensions of the SBA, which relate to entrepreneurial learning and women entrepreneurship, bankruptcy and second opportunity for SMEs, the institutional and regulatory framework for policy development of SMEs, the questions such as operational environment for SMEs, support services for SMEs and start-ups, public procurement, then the access to finance for SMEs, standards and technical regulations, entrepreneurial skills, innovation policy for SMEs, and the questions of small and medium enterprises in the green economy, as well as the internationalization of SMEs.
Ten dimensions of SBA as typically analyzed through more than 100 indicators of entrepreneurial policies, with some of dimensions and indicators divided into sub-dimensions and sub-indicators. As a result of the report that should be comprehensive and in line with pre-defined methodology, the OECD estimates the level of entrepreneurial climate and entrepreneurial policies that a specific country has and carries out. There are five levels that reflect the situation, as a consequence of the obtained report and completed questionnaire, they are for each state defined by the evaluation committee at the EU level, according to the collected data and completed questionnaires from the field.
The expert Sindek noted the importance of the working group in the Federation of BiH, considering that the data collected by the working group from the RS and the Federation of BiH will be part of the report for BiH which is being drafted and prepared for the document Doing Business - World Bank. In particular, it was pointed out that the future work of the working groups should focus on activities that were implemented in Macedonia when it comes to the application of the OECD methodology to estimate business climate and entrepreneurial policies.