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Reviving artisanal woodwork in Bosnia and Herzegovina

By Stasha Igrutinovic

EBRD and EU support furniture-maker Artisan’s growth abroad

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s long tradition of woodwork owes much to its geography and ample supply of quality raw materials. With just over half its area covered in forests, it should come as no surprise that many world-renowned, handcrafted furniture brands come from the country.

One of them is Artisan. From its roots in a family grown, brick and mortar shop to fame as furniture designer supplying foreign markets, Artisan’s climb to the top is the culmination of a love for wood nurtured over 50 years. Read more

Small businesses form the backbone of the Western Balkan economies and are the stepping stone to their economic convergence and path towards the EU accession. Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) employ between 60% and 80% of the active population in the region, which is on average higher than in the EU. Since its foundation in 2012, the Western Balkans Enterprise Development and Innovation Facility (WB EDIF) supported 4,000 SMEs and created 78,000 jobs in the Western Balkans.

Read more about the WBE DIF story here.

A brand new quick snapshot brochure on the WB EDIF has been prepared to give a presentation of the WB EDIF at a glance. Companies in different stages of their life have different needs where the WB EDIF support can step in with different financial instruments and support services to help them grow and develop.

New WB EDIF Success Stories booklet is now available, with new stories and interesting case studies and interviews. Providing nest-to-sky financing and support for small and medium sized enterprises in the Western Balkans.

New edition of the WB EDIF Annual Report has been released during the SME Forum in Sarajevo on 7 May, 2019.

On 7 May 2019 in Sarajevo, the WB EDIF held its second SME Forum in the region. The Forum, hosted by the EBRD and coordinated by the European Commission and the EIF, brought together key stakeholders from the private and public sector.

This report presents the results of the EIB CESEE Bank Lending survey at the regional and at the single country level. The survey is a unique instrument developed in the context of the Vienna Initiative to monitor cross-border banking activities and deleveraging in CESEE, to better understand the determinants / constraints influencing credit growth in CESEE and to gain some forward-looking insights into cross-border banks’ strategies and market expectations regarding local financial conditions.

First time public WB EDIF Annual Report 2017 can be accessed on the link below:

EIB CoE project INNOFEIT Roadmap

The Road Map for INNOFEIT Centre of Excellence is a follow-up of the mapping of leading Research Development & Innovation institutions in the Western Balkans, which created a short list of regional institutions. An individual Road Map for the institution achieving highest ranking in the benchmarking process was created, in order to provide financial and advisory support to the building of a recognised Centre of Excellence within the regional innovation eco-system.

Small- and medium-sized practices (SMPs) have an important role to play in supplying professional services to their small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) clients.

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