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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

$1m for innovations for small, medium enterprises

Belgrade, 18 March 2022

Prime Minister Ana Brnabic attended today the announcement of the second call of the StarTech programme to support the digital transformation of small and medium enterprises, worth $1 million.

Micro, small and medium enterprises that have innovative business ideas or want to transform their business by introducing new technologies can apply for grants from today until 18 May.

This competition, which, within the StarTech programme, is organised by the government of Serbia and NALED, with the support of Philip Morris, is intended to support innovation and digital business transformation.

Brnabic said that the funds for this programme were provided thanks to Philip Morris, while expressing hope that other private companies would also get involved in helping innovators.

The Prime Minister emphasised that the vision of the country's development must be based on an economy based on knowledge and high technologies in order to make up for lost time and join developed countries.

The Prime Minister pointed out that the ICT sector is one of the most successful in the country and that the state has done a lot to develop it – we have strengthened children's IT education and introduced the subject "Digital World" and the basics of artificial intelligence in primary schools. countries in the world.

Now we need to focus on two spheres, and those are artificial intelligence and biotechnology, and our overall future development will depend on that, she said.

Brnabic pointed out that a lot was invested through the Innovation Fund and the Science Fund, but that a larger share of private capital was missing.

Director of the Department for Entrepreneurship and Investments in NALED Dusan Vasiljevic stated that the value of individual grants ranges from $15,000 to $100,000, depending on the user and the type of support, and companies will be awarded up to 1,000 hours of expert support.