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Assessment of Environment for Women Entrepreneurship
in Montenegro
Zvezdana OLUIĆ
International Women’s Entrepreneurship Laboratory – 26 November 2014, Rome
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MEF Report • Strategic document created within the project “Assessment of
Environment for Women Entrepreneurship in Montenegro”, using AfDB/ILO Integrated framework tool and methodology for assessment.
• Author: MEF• Co-author: ISM• Support: ILO and the Government of the Kingdom of Sweden
MEF Report – objective • Objective – Assessment of the environment for women entrepreneurship
in Montenegro in 10 key fields of policies and programs defined in framework of ILO Integrated framework tools and methodology for assessment:
1) Management and coordination policy;
2) Regulatory and legal issues;
3) Promotion of women entrepreneurship;
4) Access to education and training;
5) Access to credits and financial services;
6) Access to services for business development and information;
7) Associations and networks of women entrepreneurs;
8) Access to business premises;
9) Access to markets;
10) Research on women entrepreneurship.
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MEF Report– methodology• Integration of data received through implementation of different
research techniques, with the same objective – assessment of the environment for women entrepreneurship in Montenegro.
• 10 key fields• Research techniques: (1) desk research, (2) in depth interviews with
decision makers, (3) focus groups.
(1) Desk research
- Assessment – legal framework for development of women entrepreneurship, current insitutional suppor mechanisms, strategic documents, current support means (credit lines, eeducation...)
- Review – official data and researches (economic studies, labour market situation and particularly women entrepreneurship).
Methodology...(2) In depth interviews
- interviewees: 17 key informants
- duration: from 30 to 45 minuts
- base: questions from AfDB/ILO Integrated framework
(3) Focus groups
- 12 participants – Business Women Association of Montenegro/ MEF, Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Montenegro
- Duration: 2 h / 1,5 h
- Transcript and audio recording.
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In depth interviews - interviewees1. Ministry of Economy
2. Ministry of Finance
3. Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare
4. Ministry of Human Rights and Minorities – Department for Gender
5. Equality
6. Tax Administration
7. Directorate for SMEs Development
8. Investment and Development Fund of Montenegro
9. Employment Agency of Montenegro
10. Union of Municipalities of Montenegro
11. Chamber of Commerce of Montenegro
12. Business Women Association of Montenegro
13. Montenegro Business Alliance
14. Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Montenegro
15. Faculty of Economics/University of Montenegro
16. UNDP Montenegro
17. ERSTE Bank, Podgorica
18. TV Vijestiwww.poslodavci.org
Legal Framework / political participation
• Constitution of Montenegro, Law on Gender Equality (2007), Law on Prohibition of Discrimination (2010)
• Law on the Election of Councilors and Parliament Members (2011) – quota system – new composition of Parliament includes only 17,3% of women
• Number of women in Montenegrin Parliament is growing for the last 20 years, but with oscilations – and it is still low and under the world average (19.6%)
• Prime Minister and Vice-Prime Minister are men.
• There are only three women Ministers.
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Business Environment
Foreign Direct investments in mil EUR in Montenegro (source: “Strategy for Attracting Foreign Investments 2013-2015”, Agency for Promotion of Foreign Investments)
• FIC (White Book 2014) – rating of MNE by doing business is 6.3 (out of 10)• „Doing Business Report 2014“ – MNE is on 44. place (189 countries) – i.e. in
2 place among the comparable economies of the region.
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Meeting the Recomendations of EC
• European Commission – Progress Report on Montenegro for 2014. for Chapter 20: Entrepreneurship and Industrial Policy
Conclusion: „ Limited progress has been made in the area of enterprise and industrial policy. The lack of administrative capacity and fragmented strategies impede the effectiveness of the instruments that have been put in place. Overall, preparations in this area are moderately advanced.“
• EC Remarks for 2012: „Taken in consideration generally, big informal sector and difficult access to credits are two main challanges for development of entrepreneurship.“
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Women’s Business
• In Montenegro, women are present mostly in small size companies (9,7%), while there is only one women who is owner or has the property ownership over the big company.
•
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1. Management and coordination policy
Institutional mechanisms: Department for gender equality issues – Ministry for Human and Minority
Rights; Committee for Gender Equality – Parliament of Montenegro.
Economic Empowernment of Women – state institutions: Directorate for SME development Investment and Development fund Chamber of Commerce - Committee for Women Entrepreneurship National Employment Agency
• Remark: There is a lot of room for improvement of the way and intensity of support. Significant progress is expected with adoption of Strategy for Development of Women Entrepreneurship.
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2. Regulatory and legal issues
Strategic documents: Strategy for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion (2007); National Strategy for Employment and Human Resources Development
2012 2015;‐ Economic and Fiscal Program for Montenegro 2010 2013;‐ Strategy for Development of Small and Medium Enterprises 2011 2015;‐ Strategy for Strengthening Competitiveness at the Micro Level, 2011‐
2015; Action Plan for Achievement of Gender Equality in Montenegro, 2013‐
2017; Strategy for Lifelong Entrepreneurial Learning 2008 2013.‐
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"Each municipality in their local unite should have an office or someone to assist women entrepreneurs." Representative of state authority
2. Regulatory and legal issues....
Business barriers:
Procedures for registering a company, including work permits High level and numerous taxes and fees Informal economy or black market Irregular or delayed
collection of receivalbles.
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3. Promotion of women entrepreneurship
• Tradicional role – there is no negative attitude toward women entrepreneur, but they are expected to meet family obligations along with business
• Inadequate system of social services (insufficient number of public preschool institutions and inadequate working hours, no extended hours in schools...)
• Support from family and state • Entrepreneurship is not highly ranked as wanted profession,
entrepreneurship due to the necessity • No special price for successful woman entrepreneur• Media – informing and educating
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“We had a story about a woman entrepreneur… After the story on television I had somewhere around sixty calls, so many people called me completely thrilled for having such a positive story."Representative of a media
4. Access to Education and Training
• Neither men nor women are enough educated to run their own business.
• One of the main reasons – education system and curricula• National partnership for entrapreneurial learning (good example,
limited financial resources); Entrepreneurship as a sublect in school (8 grade and all vocational high schools); Program “Young Entrepreneurs“...
• Subject Entrepreneurship exists in all universities in Montenegro, within business oriented programes – in undergraduate and graduate studies
• Entrepreneurial learning in the system of informal education…
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5. Access to Credits and Financial Services
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Major problem currently faced by company (Source: “Small and Medium Companies and Access to Finance”, 2011“, EC)
6. Access to Services for Business Development and Information
•Advisory Services•Mentorship •Publications
Women economic empowernment makes
„SMART ECONOMY“
World Bank’s Action Plan for Gender Equality (2006)
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7. Associations and Networks of Women Entrepreneurs
• Business Women Association of Montenegro – MEF • Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Montenegro – Crafts and
Entrepreneurs Chamber • Committee for Women Entrepreneurship – Chamber of Commerce
• The Association of Organisations of Mediterranean Businesswomen (AFAEMME)• The World Association of Women Entrepreneurs (FCEM)
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8. Access to Business Facilities
• Business facilities are first of all connected to financial sources. • There are two BI in Montenegro:
- BI “Inventiveness”, Podgorica
- BI “Business Start-Up Center”, Bar• Non of these two BIs in Montenegro is exclusively for women• In 2009 Government and Berane adopted the decision for seting up
BI in Berane and they created a business plan, but it has not been established yet
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"We have a lot of abandoned factories which could be very well rearranged and become incubators. I think it would be a very good step...“
State authority representative
9. Access to Market
• Generally, entrepreneurs in Montenegro rarely use available information on market. They act by their feelings
• Not enough eduaction on market analysis• When entering business, they chose safe options (verified)• Women play on safe,
they create modest business
plans and they stick to
business in which they
have experience.
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“Before I established my company, I was working in the same branch as at the moment, economic researches and similar... There I found a room which is not completely filled... My aim is not to do everything, but to specialize my company in the future. I found my market and I want to be the first in it.“ Suzana3 years in business, consulting
“Before I established my company, I was working in the same branch as at the moment, economic researches and similar... There I found a room which is not completely filled... My aim is not to do everything, but to specialize my company in the future. I found my market and I want to be the first in it.“ Suzana3 years in business, consulting
10. Researches on Women Entrepreneurship
• MONSTAT - Annual report on structural business statistics where 160 variables are
examined on a sample of 1016 of micro and SMEs.
- The research provides data on employment, expenses, trade, funds, investments, capital and obligations.
- Analysis by gender is not possible because there is no variable in questionere “gender of owner” (does not provide data
on demography of women entrepreneurs)
• We need to do research on business experience
of women, their positions, motives and obstacles
faced in business or what demoralised
them to be in business.
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Key Recommendations of MEF report
1. To support entrepreneurship and SME by gender development measures of the private sector, fiscal policy and legislation – at the local and national level;
2. To establish a closer inter agency cooperation at the government level‐ , to create inter agency teams for implementation of measures for the ‐development of women's entrepreneurship and to introduce the obligation of regular evaluation of the realized activities;
3. To intensify the activities of the state on eliminating business barriers and creating the environment that is favorable and conductive for the development of women entrepreneurship particularly at the local level;‐
4. To introduce tax incentives for self employment of women and women‐ entrepreneurship, and government subsidies for start up for employed ‐
women and not only for women from the category of the unemployed;
5. To integrate entrepreneurship education into national curricula at primary, secondary and tertiary level and to encourage entrepreneurial learning in the informal education
system; www.poslodavci.org
Key Recommendations of MEF report…
6. To create a favorable bank credit lines for women entrepreneurs, to support the establishment of a guarantee fund for women entrepreneurs and to provide funding for women start up through the ‐ provision of grants;
7. To establish women business incubator(s), and to introduce a quota system for women entrepreneurs within the existing (and new) business incubators;
8. To establish an annual prize for the most successful women entrepreneur(s), to provide regular maintenance of women entrepreneurship fair and to intensify the media promotion of successful business women;
9. To create the conditions for ensuring the collective care of children especially at the local level (extended hours kindergarten, daily care in ‐
primary schools ...);
10. To include a gender perspective in all researches, and to introduce a requirement for recording and statistical classification of all data relevant to the development of entrepreneurship by gender.
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In a meantime…
• Conference „Female business – the potential of the Montenegrin economy“ 16 October 2013 - Podgorica
• Jointly organized by ILO, MEF, Business Women Association of Montenegro and Program of Gender Equality (in partnership by UNDP in Montenegro, Ministry for Human and Minority Rights and DEU to Montenegro).
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5 Business Killers
MEF policy paper (ILO support)
1)Inadequate regulatory framework
2)Difficult access to financial resources
3)High share of informal economy
4)The existence of corruption at all levels and
in all areas
1)A mismatch between education system and
labor market needs.
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Cetinje Parliamentary Forum “Women in Business”
• XVI Meeting of CPF – organized by the Parliament of Montenegro in cooperation with OSCE, Regional Cooperation Council and GTF, on 9 -10 June 2014 in Old Royal Capital
• Opened by President of the Parliament of Montenegro and OSCE PA • Regional initiative of parliamentary cooperation of countries of SE Europe• Joint Declaration adopted
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Strategy for development of WE 2015-2020
• …are in charge of the Directorate for Development of SMEs (in cooperation with the Ministry of Economy of Montenegro and with the support of GTF)
• Working group formed – MEF representative as a member • A very important source – MEF/ILO Report • SMEDD round table "Women's Entrepreneurship - The economic
potential of the future“ – 8. July 2014, Podgorica
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MEF projects
• Lakeroutes – "Cross Itineraries for the Tourism System Empowerment and Economic Development - Shkoder Lake"
• Start W – “Support to women’s activation of women’s potential in rural tourism”
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Regional project
• “Women Entrepreneurship: A Job Creation Engine for South East Europe” (2012-2015) coordinated by RCC, co-implemented by the GTF and SEECEL (the South East European Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning) and funded by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA).
• Implemented in 9 SE European Countries• Regional Strategic Conference “WE Perspectives 2015-2020”
on 9-11 November 2014 in Sarajevo – adopted joint conclusions
The overall goal – to promote women entrepreneurship
in SE Europe through combined efforts of both public
and private sector.
• 2015 - Preparations for Ministerial and Final
Conference
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2014 EUROMED Summit
…. of Economic and Social Actors and Institutions
26 - 27 November 2014, Nicosia (Cyprus)
• MEF Secretary General Ms Suzana Radulovic
Co-President of the EU-Montenegro Joint Consultative Committee (JCC)
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ITC/ILO Conference
Conference: “Employers’ organizations and women
entrepreneurs: how to reach out?”
• Programme for Employers’ Activities of the ITCILO in cooperation with the DECP (Dutch Employers Cooperation Programme), 26-28 November 2014 – Turin, Italy
• Be informed on the progress regarding women entrepreneurs’ economic participation worldwide;
• Take-stock of the results achieved so far by EOs in organizing women entrepreneurs, voicing their interests and servicing them
• Be inspired by projects piloted by other institutions working with business organizations and women entrepreneurs
• Jointly develop concrete guidance tools on a selected number of topics (governance and membership; lobbying and advocacy; services provision) in order to help EOs and WB Associations taking the issue forward
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Raising awareness - MEDIA
WED support to raising public awareness on women in business in MNE• 5 minutes – just before the beginning of primetime news program• ……
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Women’s Business
The main challenge in creating economic
policy is to achieve a balance between:• Short-term benefits,• Medium-term objectives and• Long-term growth.
WB – the generator of new jobs and an important source of economic growth.
Women's representation in business activities
and economic environment that is favorable to their development.
To see (and to measure)
CONTRIBUTION of women's business IN CREATING of GDP www.poslodavci.org
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…..
“Non puoi insegnare niente a un uomo. Puoi solo aiutarlo a scoprire ciò che ha dentro di sé.”
“You can not teach a man anything. You can only help him find out what
he has in himself.”
Galileo Galilei
.
THANK YOU!
Montenegrin Employers’ Federation (MEF)
IX crnogorske brigade 11
81 000 Podgorica, Montenegro
T: +382 20 209 250
F: +382 20 209 251
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