SE-0-SE-6-10496 Sweden EDA, Local Development Agency (Lokala Utvecklingsbyrå) i Bosnien och Hercegovina, har lämnat in projektansökan till Sveriges ambassad för finansiering med 17,5 MSEK för att genomföra projektet för "Small Business Act" (SBA) i Bosnien och Hercegovina under perioden 2017-2020. Interventionen syftar till att harmonisera strategiska och politiska ramar för små och medelstora företag i Bosnien och Hercegovina. Detta kommer att ske genom stöd till institutioner för att accelerera den ekonomiska integrationen med EU när det gäller strategiska och politiska ramar för små och medelstora företag. Förväntade resultat är harmoniserad juridisk, strategisk och politiskt ramverk för små och medelstora företag i Bosnien och Hercegovina baserat på SBA. Projekts totala budget är 17,5 MSEK, varav 17 MSEK är för organisation, resterande belopp är för senare utvärdering. EDA, Local Development Agency from BiH, has applied to Embassy of Sweden in BiH for funding of 17,5 million SEK to carry out the "Small Business Act Strategic Framework" in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the period 2017-2020. The intervention aims at harmonizing of SME strategic and Policy Framework in BiH, to be in line with SBA. This will be done through supporting institutions to accelerate economic integration with the EU in the field of SME strategic and policy framework. Expected result is harmonized legal, strategic and policy framework for SMEs in BiH based on SBA. The intervention’s total budget is 17,5 million SEK, out of which 16,7 MSEK is for organization and the remaining amount is for evaluation. The overall goal of the Small Business Act project is to support institutions in Bosnia and Hercegovina to accelerate economic integration with the EU in the area of SMEs. The project also aims to harmonize the national legal, strategic and policy framework for SME development internally - between different administrative levels in the country and to interlink internal harmonization with the external EU SME framework. In order to use and adapt Small Business Act as a common methodological framework to harmonize legal, strategic and policy framework for SMEs in Bosnia and Hercegovina, the project encompasses all stages of policy development (planning, implementation, M&E, revision) and facilitating interactions of key stakeholders. Sweden Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency +46 8 698 50 00 sida@sida.se www.sida.se Box 2025, 174 02 Sundbyberg, Sweden Bosnia and Herzegovina Industry Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) development The overall project was structured around 8 expected results as follows: ER 1: SME Laws in the country changed and adopted in accordance to , SBAER 2: Improved implementation of SBA based parts of existing SME strategies and plans in the country, ER 3: A common methodology for preparation, implementation, M&E of SME strategies prepared and agreed between key stakeholders in the country, ER 4: Existing SME strategies and plans revised in accordance with common methodology based on , SBAER 5: Harmonized SME policies, ER 6: New SME strategies and plans for the period after 2020 developed in accordance with common methodology and adopted by relevant authorities, ER 7: Fully functional harmonized institutional set-up for SME development, ER 8: Harmonized SME policies and practices promoted to local and international stakeholders supporting SME development The project during its implementation measured progress across all mentioned results. With this said, it would be important to note that project operated in a difficult political context and complex administrative structure. To meet the requirements, wide range of stakeholders needed to be engaged in the process, achieve consensus and apply harmonized and even approach across the country. Regarding harmonization of SME policies and practices, three ways of harmonization are successfully tested and applied: Harmonization of laws and strategies in the country with SBA as corresponding EU framework and mutually between different administrative levels in the country (harmonization of the laws on small and medium enterprises; harmonization of SME development strategies); after reflection this type of harmonization is named indirect harmonization; Top-down harmonization tested and applied for those policies where the state level has appropriate competencies, in the field of quality infrastructure (five harmonized measures for progress in terms of standards and technical regulations) and in the field of internationalization (three measures to strengthen the competitiveness of export-oriented SMEs in global value chains); two harmonized policy instruments are fully developed, one for supporting SMEs to introduce technical standards and one for supporting internationalization of SMEs (export-promotion), and promoted by publications; similarly a harmonized approach to state-aid in regard to SME support is elaborated, embedded into Strategic Guidelines and promoted by a publication; Bottom-up harmonisation - tested and applied for those policies when the competencies are at the level of entities and Brko District, as in the case of harmonized development and adoption of action plans for SME innovation (adopted three action plans with the same structure and a set of four main measures), as well as in the case of piloting SME energy transition support policies and practices; promoted by three publications The project measured progress across all expected results and managed to established solid grounds for completing the harmonization of the legal and strategic framework as an irreversible process. Documents developed in support of the project are only pending formal adoption by respective governments and parliaments due to other political obstacles the country faces. In other words, once political issues that are not related to issues tackled by this project are resolved prepared documents in the support of the project should not be subject to additional scrutiny, being already agreed between all relevant stakeholders. Once the official adoption is completed of SME - related policies, laws and strategies developed in support of the project SBA alignment will most likely be institutionalized. To provide some noteworthy examples of main outputs that project delivered directly contributing to overall objective and implementation of project results; a) Draft BIH Strategic Guidelines for Harmonization of SME Support finalized prepared for adoption. It is being used as one of the key inputs for IPA III Programming b) SME related ministries and departments at the state, entity and Brcko District (BD) levels adopted the same methodological guidelines in line with SBA. c) RS Law on Amendments to the Law on SME Developments adopted by RS National Assembly (2019) d) Draft Law on Stimulating Development of SMEs in BIH is adopted by the FBIH Government and both Houses of the Parliament and it is in its final stages of adoption e) Law on stimulating Economic Development in BD is in the adoption procedure. f) FBIH Development Strategy (including key elements of SBA) is in its final stages of adoption while FBIH SME Development Strategy is under preparation. g) BD SME Development Strategy (including key elements of SBA) is adopted and BD SME Development Strategy is prepared, pending formal adoption. h) SME related public- private dialogue is fully functional on the state level, while on the other levels of governance progress is being made. i) Strategy Implementation Enabling Mechanism is successfully introduced and tested. When it comes to achievements that were not precisely planned are related to innovation in SMEs supported through the voucher program and setting up green economy and energy management in SMEs on the agenda of interventions in SMEs. Project also provided assistance to the project partners in providing an evidence-based assessment and reporting during the OECDSME/SBAWBT preparation of SME Policy Index and BiHSBA Profile (2021, to be published in 2022). Technical assistance on demand was provided to BIH Ministry for Foreign Trade and Economic Relations in providing data for OECD questionnaires. As a result, all required questionnaires were timely filled in, completed and delivered to the OECD Lastly, SBAinBiH single portal is developed. All project partners expressed an interest to use it as an additional tool for monitoring implementation of SME related strategies and plans as well as a valuable resource for preparation of SME Policy Index and BiH SBA Profile in future (2024-2025). No indicator available - only a description of the activity results is published