“Entrepreneur 2009”

By: Miodrag Stosic
Belgrade, Nov.14, 2009 (Serbia Today) - The “Enterpreneur 2009”, election of the best entrepreneur in Serbia, will be held during the beginning of December. This event, organized and supported by the Serbian magazine Blic and Intesa Bank, by choice of the jury, will pick the best entrepreneur for the year 2009. The winer will gain valuable exposure to their business and rewarded with 30,000 euros.
The initial stage of the competition event takes place when the jury makes a list of 50 the most successful entrepreneurs in the country. After the selection is made, the jury will spend one month visiting all candidates to explore the degree to which they have developed their businesses and their financial success. The companies will be evaluated by the standards of their internal organization, export potential, extent of product innovation. Other catagories upon which the candidate’s success will be measured are orientation towards environmental protection, achieved contribution to community development and by their success in the market. At the beginning of 2010 the jury will declare a winner.
The first Enterpreneur contest was organized in 2006, and since then it has become an opportunity for the promotion of private entrepreneurship in Serbia. “The main purpose of our action is to promote small and medium enterprises which has 70 percent of employees in our country” said Vojislav Tufegdzic, chief editor of the economic section in “Blic”.
Djankarlo Miranda, Deputy Chairman of the Executive Committee of “Intesa Bank” and a member of the jury, said that they have recognized the problems faced by entrepreneurs sector in Serbia a long time ago.
“The feeling that we are left with through our contact with the small and medium enterprises is that we have to appreciate that strong entrepreneurial spirit and their great desire to succeed on their own ideas” said Miranda.
The visibility of the Entrepreneur contest is contributed to by the fact that it is opened by Mladjan Dinkic, Minister of Economy and Regional Development.
“Small and medium enterprises produce about 35 percent of gross domestic product. In the year of economic crisis, the Serbian Government has assisted this sector through various programs for a total of 1.5 billion euro’s, and through subsidized loans for liquidity to small and medium enterprises to the amount 430 million euros” said Dinkic.
The Entrepreneur contest will award only one candidate but the rest will also benefit from the close media coverage by Blic magazine, and Blic daily.