PM Marković at Startup Europe Summit in Sofia: Montenegro will have startup-friendly environment by 2020

Prime Minister Duško Marković said today at the Startup Europe Summit in Sofia that the Montenegrin environment – both legislative and business – is not startup-friendly at this moment, but that the Government is dedicatedly working to overcome this problem and to make the first steps in the systematic financing of the startup entrepreneurship by the end of this year.

When it comes to the startup environment in Montenegro, we are at the very beginning. We did not do enough and these are only the first, initial steps – Prime Minister Duško Marković said at the high-level panel Transforming Western Balkans into a startup-friendly region. Prime Minister of Serbia Ana Brnabić and Prime Minister of Macedonia Zoran Zaev were also the panellists.

PM Marković added that insufficient institutional framework and non-optimal financing models are the reasons of this problem.

At the Summit in Sofia, which he attended at the invitation of European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society Mariya Gabriel, the Prime Minister said that the Government is making a great effort to improve the business environment and to create good opportunities for entrepreneurship and the startup community, but there are limits in various fields.

We do not even have enough capital, i.e. money to invest in the startup entrepreneurship. Our market is small and limited to IT entrepreneurship. There are also reasons of an objective nature concerning poor legislation. We have a number of serious and wide subsidies when it comes to small, medium-sized and micro enterprises. However, this level of subsidies is not suitable for startup entrepreneurship because the conditions are completely different. Credit support for small enterprises is not adequate for startup entrepreneurship. This is not a good model for this kind of business, the Prime Minister noted, adding that the digital component is not at the required level.

Conscious of the weaknesses, as PM Marković pointed out, the Government is working on several important documents that should give new impetus, new content and better environment for startup entrepreneurship.

We are already preparing a two-year programme by 2020 that will support startup entrepreneurship. It will have three elements: a legislative one, which should provide high-quality legal requirements for the formation of a company and the launching of a business. At this moment, we do not have legal preconditions for a startup entrepreneurship. The same conditions apply to small and medium-sized enterprises, which means that you have to have a director and administration and some other content that is limiting – Prime Minister Marković highlighted.

He added that a smart specialisation strategy is being drafted, as well as the document that will make a clear picture of the country's internal situation in the digital economy and startup entrepreneurship.

I believe that in the next year we will make significant breakthroughs and show a higher state, institutional and financial relation towards this important need and key policy – digital economy that is the economy of the future –Prime Minister Duško Marković emphasised, adding that we understand how important it is for the Montenegrin economy and accelerating development, and that we will be committed to it in the coming period.

He also pointed to the existence of certain private initiatives, explaining that Mtel has formed the first Hub for startups that brings together a significant number of people.

PUBLIC RELATIONS SERVICE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF MONTENEGRO

PHOTO: PM Markovic at the Startup Europe Summit in Sofia

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/aKSg5HHaeXs