Business incubators will be created in Baranovichi and Glubokoye within the UNDP project
Since February 2017, the United Nations Development Programme and the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Belarus, with the financial support of the Russian Federation, have been implementing this project.
— We aim to achieve the stated goal of promoting employment through stimulating entrepreneurial initiative in the sphere of small and medium-sized businesses, as well as by forming various forms of production cooperation and foreign economic integration within the EAEU, — said project manager Marina Kalinovskaya. — Our budget is one million dollars, which is distributed across three areas: the establishment of business incubators, the conduct of training events, and the development of subcontracting and franchising. The main partners of the project are the Department for Entrepreneurship of the Ministry of Economy, the Belarusian Fund for Financial Support of Entrepreneurs, and OJSC "Development Bank of the Republic of Belarus".
Business incubators will be established in five pilot cities in the Vitebsk and Mogilev regions (Baran, Glubokoye, Krichev, Mstislavl, Chausy) to test effective approaches in the development of small enterprises.
— These platforms will become an information window for novice entrepreneurs. Here they can get answers to any question that interests them, — emphasized Marina Kalinovskaya. — You can also gain additional knowledge at free training events that are already being held in the cities of the Vitebsk region. In the first half of the year, about 10 seminars were held in Liozno, Gorodok, Lepel, Braslav, and Polotsk. Experienced consultants and experts acted as speakers, giving advice to those who are thinking about starting their own business.
Current entrepreneurs also attend training sessions, for example, wanting to know how to properly promote their business. Participants of the seminar "Marketing Tools for Small Business," which recently took place in Vitebsk, were able to get an answer to this question. Its leaders — Chairman of the Board of the public association for the support of business and entrepreneurship "Assistance and Development" Maxim Leonenkov and SEO specialist Andrey Radzevich — spoke about increasing sales through a well-planned marketing campaign and competent online advertising.
Within the framework of the UNDP project, small and medium-sized enterprises are actively involved in cooperative processes by expanding outsourcing, subcontracting, and franchising opportunities, the expert said. For these purposes, a national subcontracting system will be created and integrated with the Russian Federation and other EAEU countries. In Vitebsk, a contact exchange took place on July 16 as part of the International Business Conference "Innovations — the Path to Successful Integration."
For those wishing to expand their economic opportunities through franchising, a large franchise exhibition will be held in Minsk on October 16, where real success stories will be presented. The basics of this type of market relationship can be found in the electronic manual posted on the project website.
UNDP has also taken care of the financial component of startups in advance, which, thanks to the Belarusian Fund for Entrepreneurship Support and the Development Bank of the Republic of Belarus, can now receive credit support on favorable terms.
— The project's function — mediation — is performed 100%, — Marina Kalinovskaya noted in conclusion. — It brings together the potential of small towns with the interests of large businesses and foreign investors, and promotes interaction between enterprises, entrepreneurs, local authorities, and public structures.