CIFESAL

CIFESAL leads an International Consortium, who will implement an ambitious programme of Business Services for SMEs in Croatia.

The 2nd February, 2011, the first Steering Committee meeting of the Project SME-PASS was held in Zagreb, Croatia.

This support project to SMEs funded by the European Commission is a … initiative of promotion and provision of specialised Consulting Services addressed to 200 Croatian companies from lagging-behind regions.

The project is led by CIFESAL and will last 18 months along which the Ministry of  Economy, Labour and Entrepreneurship in Croatia will be supported to promote and provide services of quality assurance, marketing, product development and access to finance, as the main ones.

The first Steering Committee meeting was organised by the Ministry of Economy and was chaired by Mrs. Dragica Karachi, Head of the Department of EU Programmes and Projects in Croatia. In the meeting, the Inception Report was presented, including the programme of activities to be developed in the coming months. All members of the Steering Committee participated in the meeting, including: Ministry of Economy; Labour and Entrepreneurship of Croatia; Central Finance and Contracting Agency of Croatia; Central Office for Development Strategy and Co-ordination of EU Funds; Delegation of the EU to the Republic of Croatia; Croatian Agency for Small and Medium Business; Croatian Chamber of Economy; Croatian Chamber of Trades and Crafts; Croatian Association of Cooperatives; and Croatian Association of Employers - SME branch.

On behalf of the International Consortium running the project, the team of key experts as well as the members of the International Department of CIFESAL participated in the meeting, and they were in charge of elaborate and present the mentioned report.