The overall objective of the project was the strengthening of the institutional capacity of the Ministry of Economy, Labour and Entrepreneurship and Croatian Agency for SMEs (HAMAG) for the development of efficient policies for small and medium enterprises in line with the EU standards, namely the European Charter for Small Enterprises and Chapter 20 “Entrepreneurship and Industrial Policy” of the Acquis Communautaire.

Other project objectives were:

• Improvement of the role of the institutions providing business advisory/support services in order to make them more efficient in supporting the development of SMEs on both national and local levels;
• Improvement of the administrative and legal environment for the SME development.  

Project activities were:

• Improvement of the institutional framework and enhancement of the beneficiary’s capacity to create policies and strategies for the SME development,
• Improvement of the quality of business advisory/support services (BAS),
• harmonization of the SME definitions and statistics with the EU standards,
• improvement of the regulatory regime for SMEs and
• capacity building of employees in institutions crucial for the SME development on both national and local levels, and networking with similar international institutions.

The most significant outcome of this project is a more efficient functioning of the institutions responsible for the development of small and medium enterprises, a better entrepreneurial environment, and harmonization according to the EU requirements.  

Main project beneficiaries were the Ministry of Economy, Labour and Entrepreneurship, HAMAG and the relevant institutions in the following eight counties:

• Brod-Posavina,
• Vukovar-Srijem,
• Požega-Slavonia,
• Sisak-Moslavina,
• Karlovac,
• Lika-Senj,
• Zadar and
• Šibenik-Knin.

Project implementation lasted from June 2007 until January 2009. Total budget of the project was EUR 1.7 million that was financed by PHARE 2005 programme.