With the support of the Belgrade City Assembly and the Youth Office, the Cabinet of the Minister for Innovation and Technological Development has devised grants for the development of women’s innovative entrepreneurship in the amount of 100 million dinars for the following year.
Minister of Innovation and Technological Development, Nenad Popovic points out that many activities have been undertaken in order to facilitate the involvement of women in this area. One of them is the Support Programme for the Development and Promotion of Innovative Women Entrepreneurship, which started this year.
The Programme’s main goal is to promote innovative entrepreneurship among women through promotion, affirmation and direct support in the realization of their ideas.
At a working breakfast, held on the occasion of presenting the goals the Programme, Popovic told reporters that in Serbia, the number of men in innovative entrepreneurship far outweighs the number of women.
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“It’s important that children, starting with ages 8 or 9, start learning programming and the basics of entrepreneurship in order to set up their own startup companies when they grow up,” Popovic said.
The Minister also pointed out that any ideas that will help the development of women entrepreneurship will be supported and that this year, the line ministry has allocated significant funds for the promotion of female entrepreneurship.
“We will continue implementing these excellent projects next year too, as the development of female innovative entrepreneurship is trending in Europe too. The EU and certain non-EU countries also have the problem of having significantly fewer women in innovative entrepreneurship and are taking various steps to fix it,” he explained.
The plan is to have more women launching their businesses
Popovic says that the idea is to help as many young women, as well as middle-aged women, to start their own business because innovations are not just about IT technologies. Innovative projects can be launched anywhere and in any segment.
“The most important thing is to be brave. Our idea is to help with grants and providing support in education for women. These programmes will continue next year too”, Popovic pointed out.
He also said that women in Serbia were diligent and have an entrepreneurial spirit and that in this way, they will be encouraged to open their own startups, follow their dreams and become successful women entrepreneurs.
The Minister said that there is a strong interest in the project and that many good ideas have already been submitted.
He also said that there would be a major change in the labour market in the next five to ten years and that some existing professions will disappear, and new ones appear.
(RTS, 27.11.2018)
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