BELGRADE – 11 May 2018 – More than 2.000 micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurs in Serbia has used free mentorship services for improving their business, and today three awards were given to the three most successful mentors in 2017.

Awards “MENTOR AWARD 2017“, within the project “Establishing and promoting mentorship for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurs in the West Balkan countries, Phase 2”, were given to Ljiljana Marković from the Regional Development and EU Integration Agency Belgrade, Boban Kostadinović from the Regional Agency for Development of East Serbia “PARIS” and Ivan Mihajlović from the Regional Development Agency South.

Granting the awards and the two-day meeting of mentors is realised by the Development Agency of Serbia (RAS) with the support of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency JICA. 

The best mentors are selected by the mentors among themselves, based on the data on the increased trade, development, and innovative achievements in enterprises they trained. The main objective of the entire event is the exchange of the experience from the field, and finding new ways of improvement of assistance to the enterprises. The awards are designed by the consultants from Japan, covering the participation of all the mentors from Serbia who worked directly with the enterprises. 

The awards were given by Hideo Kobajashi (JICA Balkan Office), Katarina Obradović Jovanović (Assistant Minister in Serbian Ministry of Economy), Ana Žegarac (Head of the Sector for Planning and Development of the Development Agency of Serbia), JICA consultants from Japan: Takashi Kimura, Masashi Takano; Danijela Čabarkapa (Director Executive of the Japanese Business Alliance in Serbia).

In the course of the first stage of the project, around 2.000 beneficiaries in Serbia said they were happy with the mentoring service, estimating that the service helped them perceive the current business of their enterprises, examine the current issues and obstacles for improvement, define potentials for growth, and create a strategy for further development. At this point the beneficiaries for Phase 2 have more than 50 available accredited mentors, who are to face new challenges, but thanks to whose expertise and experience the companies will improve their business.