District Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovations Promotion and Support has been opened in Glubokoye (Belarus)

30 October 2019

On October 25, 2019, the Forum "Promotion. Support. Innovation." was held in the Glubokoye District Executive Committee. The event was organized to present the international technical assistance project "Creation of Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovations Promotion and Support in Glubokoye District, Vitebsk Oblast, Belarus". This project has been implemented in Belarus with the financial support of the European Union within the EU Initiative "Mayors for Economic Growth" since 2017.
The working meetings of the Forum were attended by regional and local authorities, representatives of partner organizations, business and civil society. The main topics of discussion at the Forum were the issues of support for local entrepreneurship and exchange of experience between the districts. After the Forum, the participants visited the new Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovations Promotion and Support.
"We very much hope that the Center will become an information and training platform that will provide targeted assistance to startuppers. It will provide them with start-up opportunities in business development, as well as facilitate launch and promotion of products on the market," said Tatsiana Tarasevich, Deputy Chairman of the Glubokoye District Executive Committee, Local Economic Development Officer within the Initiative "Mayors for Economic Growth".
According to Eduard Pavlysh, Head of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovations Promotion and Support, the Center consists of three structural divisions, reflecting its key functions: educational (conducting training courses and seminars for target groups in the Business School), advisory (consulting activities of the Startup Support Office), and marketing (operation of the Office for SME development facilitation)".
During the Forum, in addition to the opening of the Center, the M4EG signatories presented two other pilot projects which implementation has already been started. Slavgorod district presented the project "BRIDGE as the Pilot Eco-Business Model for Local and Regional Economic Growth", and Bragin district — "Agrobusiness – incubator".
"All three districts in which the M4EG pilot projects are being implemented have great potential, and we hope that they will become worthy examples for other regions of our country," said Natalia Efremenko, M4EG Country Coordinator for Belarus.
"The competitiveness of Belarus in the world economy largely depends on the country's involvement in international technical assistance projects implemented in its territory. Belarusian authorities, as well as local entrepreneurs, understand the importance of such initiatives and do not miss the chance to improve the economic situation in their regions," said Maris Igaves, international project expert in Glubokoye. "Belarus has an opportunity to implement really ambitious and large-scale projects. In addition, there is no competition between the signatories in the country. It is remarkable that all the M4EG participants deeply care not only for their project, but also for the projects of their colleagues and this has a positive impact on the final result."