Graduates of OSCE Mission's entrepreneur programme in Serbia visit business institutions

BELGRADE, 12 December 2005 - Thirty graduates of the Young Entrepreneurial Spirit (YES) programme from all over Serbia today exchanged business ideas with representatives of the Serbian Development Fund and the Pro Credit Bank in Belgrade.

The OSCE Mission to Serbia and Montenegro facilitated the visit to the two institutions which support small- and medium-size enterprises in Serbia.

"The future of Serbia's economic growth lies in small and medium size businesses," said Dusan Vasiljevic, Head of the OSCE Mission's Economic and Environment Department. "We need to encourage and train young people to set up their own businesses in order to generate the new jobs of the future".

The young entrepreneurs were selected from among the 420 participants of the OSCE Mission's YES programme. Launched in 2004, it provided specialized training in 17 Serbian municipalities and helped improve the expertise of small business entrepreneurs.

The graduates also visited the OSCE Mission's Belgrade office where they had a chance to evaluate the programme and present some of their business proposals to representatives of the Entrepreneurial Society Development Centre, who assisted in the organization of the programme.