The Association of Business Women in Serbia at Public Hearing at the House of the National Assembly of the Repbulic of Serbia

The Association of Business Women in Serbia at Public Hearing at the House of the National Assembly of the Repbulic of Serbia

The Association of Business Women in Serbia in cooperation with Committee on the Economy, Regional Development, Trade, Tourism and Energy held Public Hearing on “Women’s Entrepreneurship in Serbia” on 26 November 2013 at the House of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia. Public Hearing was also supported by German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).

Aleksandra Tomic, the chairperson of the Committee on the Economy, Regional Development, Trade, Tourism and Energy, emphasized that women often seek employment from men, but that there are opportunities for starting their own businesses.

“Men and Women should be good colleagues who will share a mutual mission to create a better economic environment” said Aleksandra Tomic. On this occasion she congratulated the ABW Serbia on the “Special mention” prize for promoting entrepreneurial spirit amongst women, granted at the ceremony in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Sanja Popovic Pantic, president of the ABW Serbia, had a presentation on women’s entrepreneurship in which she portrayed the present situation in this field, and, as a priority for the upcoming period, she emphasized the inclusion of women’s enterprises in the supply chains, as it is a way of accomplishing sustainability and development of these companies.

Dusica Semencenko, presented the results of a research on needs for education. The research was based on a sample of about 200 enterprises, of which the majority of them are members of the ABW Serbia. Subjects of most interest for women entrepreneurs appear to be HR management, conflict management within the organization and company management, as well as understanding the EU sectoral policies.

Olivera Popovic, vice president of the ABW Serbia, spoke about socially responsible business regarding women’s position. She emphasized the importance of the Women’s Empowerment Principles of UN WOMEN, and the importance of their implementation in business practice of female enterprises. Special attention drew the fact that 51 companies owned/co-owned by our members are signatories of these principles.

Gordana Djurdjevic, president of the Board for Public Advocacy and member of the ABW Serbia, emphasized the significance of „open doors“ of state institutions when discussing women’s entrepreneurship; Ljiljana Karaklajic, member of the ABW Serbia and owner of „D Express“ company, pointed out that there is no major difference between male and female business owners, and that the support of women employers is of great importance in terms of passing the new Labor Law.

Radojko Srbljanovic, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Economy and Prof. Ana Trbovic, Special Advisor to the Minister of Economy, emphasized that the cooperation with the ABW Serbia was highly successful, and spoke about measurements and programs of the Ministry of Economy which are focused on the development of women’s entrepreneurship in Serbia. They also pointed out that it is in progress the preparation of the new National Strategy for encouraging Entrepreneurship for period 2014-2020, and that women’s entrepreneurship is one of the parts of it.

Marija Obradovic, the representative of the Women’s Parliamentary Network, pointed out the significance of women’s participation in the Parliament and stressed that it would be the way of achieving larger interest in subjects related to promoting position of women – campaign against domestic violence, advancement of education, women’s health and economic empowerment.

Biljana Ljubic, the representative of IRI, spoke about cooperation of Women’s Parliamentary Network with women entrepreneurs through the project of International Republican Institute (IRI).

During the course of the discussion, the participants of the Public Hearing reached to conclusion that it is very important to support women’s entrepreneurship, using new measurements, activities and making legislative changes, as well as with continuous networking, work and innovations in order to achieve better results.