With a long tradition of business cooperation and labour migration to Austria, Germany and Switzerland, as well as excellent positioned Serbian market, small and medium enterprises in Serbia have great potential for internationalisation of businesses towards DACH countries. Research in the first phase has shown that there is an increasingly strong interest in diaspora to invest in Serbia and to support domestic small and medium enterprises in internationalisation.
The Link Up! Serbia II Project lasts for 28 months and aims to support transnational entrepreneurial activities with and through the Serbian diaspora in Austria and other DACH countries by facilitating access to knowledge, networks and financial resources.
The Link Up! Serbia II project is funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA), with funds of the Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC) in the amount of 1,699.454 EUR. The project brochure can be downloaded here. The project newsletter for 2020 can be found here.
Primary activities through which the project will be implemented are divided to 5 groups:
- Mentoring of small and medium enterprises for more successful internationalization to DACH markets;
- Creating and piloting of the Diaspora Business Hub to support the diaspora in investing and finding partners in Serbia;
- Development of technical assistance to cities and municipalities to create and promote investment opportunities;
- Development of business online platform for diaspora to digitise cooperation with diaspora;
- Organizing business meetings with the diaspora in Serbia and Austria, Germany and Switzerland;
Realized goals of the project will enable improvement of domestic entrepreneurs and small and medium enterprises’ competitiveness and strengthen capacities of local self-governments, regional development agencies and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia to build stronger and more successful mechanisms for business engagement of the diaspora. Project will also ensure expansion of diaspora engagement in the form of transfer of knowledge, wider investment and access to business networks.