November 2009

Belgrade, November 26-28, 2009

At the 8th International Fair of Entrepreneurs “Business Base 2009” held from 26-28 November at the Belgrade Fair, HELP presented 11 clients from Bujanovac, Kragujevac, Nis, Pirot, Uzice and Vranje.
In three days, amongst more than 300 enterprises and entrepreneurs from the country and region HELP clients presented their products and services. And so its place at the stand have found honey products, clay pottery, socks, children’s clothing, toys,  and various decorative hand-made wood products, pieces of furniture, cookies and dough products made of  non-preservative ingredients’, but also the services in construction as well as furnishing and decorating business’ premises.
Participation at the fair is a chance to grasp new knowledge, exchange of business ideas and contacts that is a common attitude of HELP clients-exhibitors.

Another four clients of HELP participated at the parallely held 36th International Ethno food and beverages Fair keeping the practice of food and drink preparation by the old traditional recipes, organized in cooperation with the Nis City Administration for agriculture and rural development. The twelve agriculture producers from Nis region had a joint presentation at the fair, displaying various products (honey, fruit and vegetables, alcohol beverages, goat milk cheese in herb oil, mushrooms, home-made cookies and cakes).

Belgrade, November 10, 2009

10 YEARS OF HELP IN SERBIA – SUCCESSFUL TOGETHER

The organization HELP marked its 10th anniversary of work in Serbia with celebration "Successful together" in the hall of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, within the German Days. On that occasion, HELP signed Memorandums of understanding with 17 Serbian cities and municipalities on cooperation in 2010.
The cities and municipalities designated almost 800.000,00 EUR for cooperation with HELP in 2010 on projects supporting self-employment and local economic development. In addition to the signing with the cities of Kragujevac, Kraljevo, Leskovac, Nis, Novi Pazar, Smederevo, Sremska Mitrovica, Uzice, Vranje and the municipalities of Aleksinac, Bosilegrad, Bujanovc, Gadzin Han, Pirot, Presevo, Surdulica, Trgoviste, a Memorandum of understanding was signed with the Ministry of labour and social policy of Republic of Serbia as well.

Opening the conference Mr. Milos Bugarin, President of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce emphasized that since the democratic changes, with assistance of 700 million EUR for economic cooperation and development Germany has become one of the main Serbian donors.

Greeting the guests German Ambassador H.E. Mr. Wolfram Maas, said that even before German official development assistance started, the German organization HELP became active in Serbia and in other countries of the region in 1999. Within the German government, the German Foreign Ministry has so far supported HELP activities in total value of 4 million EUR.

In ten years with nearly 50 projects implemented throughout Serbia, with the total value of over 18 million EUR, HELP provided not only humanitarian assistance to those most in need, but also constructed 254 housing units for displaced people and other socially vulnerable population.  Furthermore, through the development oriented approach to small businesses, HELP created and supported 3169 craft, service and agriculture small businesses. The latest assessment, done on the sample of 2.183 entrepreneurs from 24 municipalities throughout Serbia, shows that their annual turnover amounts to 9,7 million EUR, summarized the HELP’s 10-year results  Mr. Timo Stegelmann, Regional Representative for the Southeastern Europe, in his presentation.

Those present were also addressed by Mr. Adriano Martins, Deputy Head of the European Commission to the Republic of Serbia, as well as Swiss Ambassador H.E. Mr. Erwin H. Hoefer, and Netherlands Ambassador H.E. Mr. Ron Van Dartel.

The conference ended with the cocktail in the hall of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, along with the small display of HELP client’s products and services.

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