Megatrend Revija (Jan 2018)
Entrepreneurial finance in Serbia: The role of the World Bank Group
Abstract
Economic policymakers, national and supranational bodies have recognized small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as the bearers of economic growth, but also the fact that access to funding sources is one of the main limiting factors for SMEs, and therefore a limiting factor for the economy. International financial institutions (MFIs) may play an important role in ensuring access to adequate sources of funds, especially in countries with a poorly developed financial system, which have undergone various transformational changes and where capital accumulation is low. The investment portfolio of MFIs may be diversified, but this paper analyzes only the institutions of the World Bank Group and particularly those projects that have been implemented in the last ten years, which directly or indirectly contribute to the development of entrepreneurship in Serbia. These institutions support entrepreneurship at macro level (direct support to the state through a variety of incentive programs, stabilization programs, improvement of the economic environment, support to the budget, etc.) and the micro level (loans, grants, equity investments, hybrid instruments, technical assistance and instruments to minimize the risk). In the last ten years, the analyzed institutions have invested around 3.7 billion dollars in stimulating entrepreneurship, only through analyzed projects, which represents around 5% of total bank landing to the economy sector.
