At the Kopaonik Business Forum on March 6, the most prominent business gathering in Serbia, the Center for Advanced Economic Studies (CEVES) and the Big Small Businesses Project premiered its Innovation and Competitiveness Index. This new flagship small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) monitoring tool that will present the landscape of Serbia’s SME sector, its key competitive advantages, innovation performance, and distribution across Serbia’s 25 districts was unveiled at one of the conference’s panels, “It’s Time for Serbia’s Big Small Businesses: Competitiveness and Innovation.” The I&CI will provide a unique understanding of the key drivers of economic growth.
The preliminary results of the index position the country’s SME sector at a medium-low level of competitiveness and development. Nevertheless, the analysis of individual responses is encouraging and suggests that some Serbian companies can be national and regional competitiveness leaders in the surveyed areas.
The final results of the index will be displayed as an easy-to-use online interactive database that will allow the findings to be plotted across multiple dimensions. The platform will be available to the public from September 2023. The I&CI has extensive applications: it will serve as a barometer for the Serbian SME sector and offer information for the Government, international organizations, donors, development projects, and other stakeholders about the sources of competitiveness and potential areas for intervention.