Skopje, 11 June 2019

Norwegian support for starting a business

Thirty unemployed persons from the Vardar, Polog, Southwest and Northeast planning regions commenced a training for starting their own businesses that is being organized by the Agency for Support of Entrepreneurship with the assistance of the Nordic Support for Progress of North Macedonia project funded by the kingdoms of Norway and Sweden. The overall financial support for this activity of around 200,000 Euros is provided within the project component for improved access to employment, financed by Norway.

The training is intended for unemployed people from these four regions that have an idea to start their own business, but lack the capacity to develop a business plan.

“These trainings have attracted great interest from unemployed people in these four regions. According to the application criteria, half of the attendees are women, and one third are youth under 29 years of age. In the upcoming four weeks, trainings will be conducted in Kavadarci and Kumanovo by 11 seasoned trainers from the Agency as well as external consultants. From our past experience, we expect that at least half of the trainees will prepare good business plans that will not only enable them the opportunity to seek additional funding, but will also help them to register their own business as a final outcome,” says Ile Mitkovski, the Director of the Agency for Support of Entrepreneurship.

Besides the training for developing a business plan, the trainees with the best assessed business plans will receive additional support through the Nordic Support for Progress of North Macedonia project through the procurement of equipment needed to kick-start their businesses.

“In cooperation with the project, the best evaluated business plans and ideas will additionally be supported through procurement of the equipment needed to start and successfully establish their business. We hope that through this support unemployed people from these regions will be able to establish their businesses and thus support additional employment in these regions,” states Mitkovski.

Most of the business ideas of the trainees are related to production in the agriculture, food and the catering sectors, as well as opening businesses in the service industry. It is expected that the businesses will be operational as of November this year.