“The project for implementing a mentoring service for small and medium enterprises is established on 20. September 2017, and it will take for 3 years.
The aim of the project is to establish control and support to domestic companies. The Mentoring Service identifies a key issue in the company and then needs to focus on the solution with the support of the mentors with the necessary resources, which should improve the business of the company. The project is also foreseen in the Action Plan of the Development Strategy for Small and Medium Entrepreneurship in Republic of Srpska, 2016-2020. Thanks to the largest positive results from Serbia, the Japan International Cooperation Agency – JICA expands and continues in Phase 2 of the Establishment of a mentoring system in the Balkans.
The Partner for Implementing this project in the Republic of Srpska is Republic Agency for the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises, which has been established a mentoring system in coordination with the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining, Local Agencies and Local self-governments. The project was funded by the Japanese Agency for International Cooperation – JICA and implemented by the consolidation of Japanese companies and the support of the Development Agency of Serbia who has a long-term experience in the development mentoring systems in Serbia.
Mentors are nominated from local development agencies or from departments for the real sector, where local agencies are not represented. The initial cycle of mentor research in classrooms and firms is scheduled for 2018.
The first cycle for theoretical and practical education for mentors is planned for 2018.
The organization of training and certification of mentors was implemented by the Republic Agency for Development of Small and Medium Enterprises. After certification of mentors, the Agency will release a Public Call for an enterprise, how it could to applicate for the interests of the users of mentoring services. Mentoring services will be supported and co-financed from public resources, with the possibility to be co-financed from other outputs like are international development programs.
After that, mentors will implement mentoring service in enterprises with the support of experts from Japan and Serbia who had a lot of experience in the first phase of the project.
The Agency will continue those activities in the following years to provide an optimal number of qualitative mentors, to strengthen capacities of local development agencies and departments for local and economic development, and development mentoring system in Republic of Srpska.”