former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

The following WB EDIF financial instruments are in place in former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

WB EDIF Guarantee Facility II
EIF signed an agreement with ProCredit Macedonia in December 2016 for a portfolio of EUR 10m, the instrument will start being deployed on the market in early 2017.

Enterprise Innovation Fund (ENIF)
As fund manager for ENIF, South Central Ventures has invested in the following companies in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:

1. Letz: as a chat-bot, Letz is an app designed to improve individual productivity by using a friendly approach and emotional connection with the character. Letz analyses and learns your daily habits and patters and suggests areas for improvement.
   ENIF’s EUR 100k investment will help the team to finalise the development of their product and fuel international marketing efforts
2. Cognism: as an end-to-end sales acceleration solution which provides sales organisations with a more efficient way to enrich CRM records, stream leads into the funnel and is using artificial intelligence to surface opportunities and identify customer trends.
   ENIF’s is party to a USD 500,000 investment involving also Netcetera and other select international co-investors to fund the further development of Cognism state of the art solution end support the global expansion

Internally managed and advised by the EBRD

WBEDIF Enterprise Expansion Fund (ENEF)

Cermat: a leading ice cream produce and other frozen goods in Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
The ENEF investment, including co-financing by the EBRD, amounts to EUR 3m, which will be used to build a new cooling facility for finished products and a new storage facility for raw materials.

The following WB EDIF Support Service projects are in place in former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

Small Business Act (SBA) monitoring: this project, run by the OECD, provides a monitoring tool which allows for a transparent and comparative way of ensuring that WB EDIF’s reform priorities can create regional synergies between government and donor efforts in supporting SMEs. The upgraded SME Policy Index methodology aims to deepen the assessment, to better capture policy performance and provide more detailed recommendations for the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

For more information please visit: http://www.oecd.org/globalrelations/smallandmedium-sizedenterprisessmepolicyindex.htm

Road to Europe – Program of Accounting Reform And Institutional Strengthening (EU-REPARIS): this project, run by the World Bank, supports the implementation of corporate financial reporting frameworks in line with the EU standards in the countries of Southeast Europe with a view to promoting enhanced availability, transparency and reliability of financial information. Sound CFR provides systematic information to business management (better monitoring leads to greater efficiencies), supports a business environment that is conducive to access to finance, and helps reduce the burden of tax compliance. REPARIS furthermore provides essential support to beneficiary countries to help them ensure their financial reporting frameworks are in line with requirements of the EU acquis communitaire.

Venture Capital & Investment Readiness (VC-IR): this project, run by the World Bank, focuses on two areas of particular priority in former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia; namely;

1. Venture Capital: for the development of a framework for the assessment of and recommendations for reforms and a tailored technical assistance programme
2. Investment Readiness: for the design, implementation and evaluation of the pilot Western Balkans Membership Assistance Programme (MAP) and generation of a pipeline of projects to be taken up by potential investors.

Advice for Small Businesses (ASB); this project, run by the EBRD, helps SMEs to improve, grow and develop to a point where they are better able to attract investment. ASB provides direct support to SMEs in the WB economies by improving investment readiness of companies, introducing international best practices in accounting and financial management, strengthening human capital and expertise, enhancing innovation and assisting with export compliance standards, to name a few activities

For more information please visit: http://www.ebrd.com/work-with-us/advice-for-small-businesses/fyr-macedonia.html

Support Services management and coordination; the EIB has been nominated as the WB EDIF Support Services Manager and Coordinator; whereby it centralises and harmonises monitoring, reporting and communication strategies, as well as measuring impact and identifying delivery gaps in the market.