Suchergebnisse

The author explains the violent break-up of the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s in the context of two legal principles - sovereignty and the self-determination of peoples. She also offers an analysis of Kosovo's future status, international recognition of secession, implications for other conflicts, and much more

We provide new empirical evidence of broader relevance for financing innovation, by assessing access to finance for young, innovative enterprises in Serbia as a transition economy. A relevant data set was analysed using an online survey, building upon a wider literature review, policy documents and related entrepreneurship surveys. Derived results, corroborated by in-depth interviews with stakeholders, suggest that young innovative enterprises are overly reliant on internal sources of financing. When considering external financing, they tend to be mostly interested in grants, subsidised bank loans (and to a lesser extent equity investment), rather than the more traditional bank financing. These results support other studies demonstrating that equity financing is better suited to finance early innovation compared to debt, and that subsidised government programmes are required to bridge the gap to equity financing. Our policy recommendations centre on fostering non-bank sources of financing, while providing support to increasing technology readiness and improving the business climate.

The attraction of foreign direct investment, especially export oriented FDI has been one of the main economic policy goals for Serbia since the start of transition in 2001, backed by incentives for attracting this type of investment. The apparel industry is one sector that has drawn significant amount of FDI, and where the link between FDI and exports is emerging strongly, as confirmed by data presented in this article. Appearance of several multinational investors, particularly from Italy, led to positive spillovers on Serbian apparel industry in terms of specific products production and their export on foreign markets, especially 'panty hose, tights, stockings & other hosiery, knitted or crocheted'. In 2012, Serbia's exports for this product represented 1.8% of world exports, ranking Serbia 10th in the world and hence representing a rising niche export. Recent investments of big industry players like Benetton will have further positive effects on export and employment in years to come, provided that the government engages in activities to improve branding in addition to continued investment incentives and policies aimed at advancing infrastructure, education and general business climate.

Venture and more broadly private equity finance is in early stage development in Serbia, both in form of seed-capital financing for innovative small and medium size enterprises (SME) and private equity financing in growing companies. Banking dominates as a source of finance with significant drawbacks in terms of cost and required collateral, especially hampering potential growth of SMEs that constitute 99% of all businesses in Serbia. This article finds private equity investments made to date to have demonstrated positive results, confirming data from other, especially transition economies, presented in the introductory literature overview. In the mid-term, Serbia stands to benefit both from entrepreneurial private ventures and important regional initiatives supported by the European Union such as the Western Balkan Enterprise Development and Innovation Facility, whose innovation and expansion investment funds are expected to start operations in 2014. Serbia is also eligible for the new EU Programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and SMEs (COSME), which will have an equity facility, stimulating venture capital stream for SMEs. Education of local financial institutions and SMEs in Serbia about venture capital and investor readiness will be vital, facilitating the construction of project pipelines. In conjunction, the legal framework should be upgraded, both by enacting the amendments to the Law on the Export-Credit Agency (AOFI) and the Law on venture capital funds, accompanied by wider regulatory reform to improve the business climate and foster entrepreneurship.