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‘Establishing an Integrated Start-up Ecosystem in the Western Balkans’

The Center for European Perspective (CEP) in cooperation with the Start:up Slovenia Platform and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia continues its work to support the development of an integrated start-up ecosystem in the countries of the Western Balkans. With the project, which is supported also by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, CEP, in addition to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, spreads its activities to Albania, Montenegro, Macedonia and Serbia.

Young entrepreneurs are among the most propulsive in the young population! CEP recognizes the need for stronger, more organized and better supported cooperation between young entrepreneurs in the Western Balkan region. The current cooperation is rather insufficient and lacks systematic stimulation, needed for a prosperous growth of the business environment.

The start-up community is a special form of an entrepreneurial ecosystem that needs to be developed and coordinated progressively. While building it, it is of utmost importance to cooperate and coordinate the activities with the existing local community that would serve as a starting point. Start-up community grows organically around key events, respectively different conferences around the world, which all have in common the following: mission to attract the best start-ups, investors, corporations and other stakeholders of the start-up ecosystem to a specific location.

CEP has been for the last three years engaged into the stimulation and support of the young entrepreneurs in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia and in cooperation with the PODIM Conference. With the newly established project “Establishing an Integrated Start-up Ecosystem in the Western Balkans”, we continue to spread positive development and start-up entrepreneurship spirit in the remaining countries of the Western Balkans in order to connect the wider region (the Alps-Adriatic region and the Western Balkans) with the most influential and most promising entrepreneurial hubs in the world (EU, US, UK, China, India) and establish a relevant positioning in the international start-up ecosystem.

The project aimed to:

• Promote the development of start-up ecosystem in the countries of the Western Balkans
• Implement the pre-competition event for the best start-ups in the region
• Organize networking with the start-ups from the Western Balkans, investors and mentors at the Podim Conference
• Choose the best start-up companies from the Western Balkans and take them to the UK for a special networking and business boosting programme