November 15 (SeeNews) - Macedonia needs to build strong innovative infrastructure like business incubators, technological and research parks to step up job creation, mostly for young people, and prevent brain drain, a senior job advisor said.
The government also needs to take practical steps that alongside with these support centers will be focused on creating a more competitive economy, Marija Armenski, incubator manager at Skopje-based Youth Entrepreneurship Service (YES) Foundation, told SeeNews in an e-mailed interview.
Fondacija Pretpriemacki Servis za Mladi (YES Foundation) offers services that help young people launch their own businesses and boost their entrepreneurial spirit. That includes business incubation and entrepreneurial training of business knowledge and soft skills, provided by recognized local and international experts.
"In all other countries, business incubators are supported either by the central or local government or by universities since incubators cannot sustain alone unless they have space of more than 2,000 square metres which is not our case," Armenski said.
The only donors of the YES project are the Norwegian Foreign Ministry (www.nmfa.no) through the implementer SINTEF (www.sintef.no), an independent research organisation as well as Soros’ local office, Foundation Open Society Institute Macedonia (www.fosim.org.mk).
Now, the main priority of YES Foundation’s is to expand its space from the current 20 offices that occupy an area of 600 square metres, to open room for a larger number of young entrepreneurs, she said.
YES Foundation’s business incubation provides fully equipped offices at rents much lower than the commercial ones, as well as counseling, mentoring, coaching, networking with similar companies and matchmaking with local and international players, Armenski said.
Tenants can obtain all services needed for a start-up company to survive the first, most vulnerable stage of its development, she added.
Armenski said that in the past three years, over 1,000 young people had attended different soft skills trainings and over 150 attended Cisco Entrepreneurship Institute Training - Starting a Business (YES is the sole certified center in Macedonia for this world's recognized certificate). Additionally, 40 companies that create over 100 jobs have been incubated in YES Foundation.
“However the high unemployment, especially among young people, can not be lowered by having just few business incubators and one business start-up center,” Armenski said.
Except the Skopje-based business incubator run by YES Foundation there is another one, located in the southwestern city of Bitola, both production- and service-oriented.
Macedonia's unemployment rate rose to 32.1% in the second quarter, from 31.9% a year earlier. The biggest jobless rate of 55% was recorded among population of 15 to 24 years of age, or 57,105 young people in the second quarter were unemployed out of young labour force of 103,767, according to the country’s Statistics Office.
YES Foundation is focused on ICT and service-related complementary industries like marketing, design, 3D modeling and public relations.
Armenski said that currently there is a huge interest among young ICT people to start their own businesses, which was not a case three years ago when the foundation was in its early stage of development.
“Nevertheless, if we compare ourselves with the European Union member countries and their entrepreneurial index, we are lagging behind,“ Armenski said, adding that in this regard a lot has to be done for Macedonia to bring the country closer to the developed world.
She said that the Macedonian ICT market is very limited and underdeveloped. The local software-related companies that are well-established are export oriented, with few of them even being global players.
So, the idea is creating a service that will be competitive and viable for the international markets, not for the local one since that is how entrepreneurship is distinguished from the regular family-owned businesses, said Armenski.
The main obstacle for starting up a business in Macedonia, according to her, is the people’s mindset inherited from the previous Socialist system that the safest job is the one in the public administration.
The other barriers include lack of initiatives towards entrepreneurship development and poor innovative infrastructure - different types of support centres, such as business incubators, innovation centers and techno-parks.
“There is no access to capital to all people who are willing to start a business."
The initial capital for a young man to start a business in Macedonia varies, whereas the production-oriented businesses are much more capital-intensive than the service industry, she explained.
In the YES case, all they need is having a PC and to pay a monthly rent of 100 euro ($136) with all inclusive - a fully equipped office and all utility bills paid, Armenski said.
YES Foundation (www.yesincubator.org.mk) was set up in 2005, whilst the business incubator was launched in July 2007.
“The foundation will continue to help the young, well educated people to start their own business and begin to think and behave entrepreneurially”.
($=0.7333 euro)