SERDA-YOUR REGIONAL PARTNER ON THE ROAD TO THE EUROPEAN UNION"
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Sarajevo Economic Region Development Agency (SERDA) was established in May 2003 by Sarajevo Canton, the City of Eastern Sarajevo and twenty municipalities from Federation B&H and RS. The processes of integration of all 32 municipalities of Sarajevo Macro Region and accession of the City of Sarajevo have been completed in 2006 and SERDA currently has 35 members/founders.
Within the last seven-year period, SERDA has consolidated itself as a leading Agency for the regional economic development. Recognizing the needs of its founders and members, SERDA creates the favorable environment for a balanced, integrated and harmonized development of the Sarajevo Macro Region. According to the 2010 Business Plan, SERDA is currently implementing 44 projects under three Sectors and two organizational units.
SERDA-MISSION STATEMENT
SERDA is a regional development agency appointed by the European Union, whose mission is to create positive environment for sustainable economic development in Sarajevo Macro Region, and advance, strengthen and promote development of Sarajevo Macro Region through mobilization of all available resources.
SERDA-OBJECTIVES
SERDA objective is a harmonized and dynamic economic development of Sarajevo Macro Region for the purpose of strengthening mechanisms for B&H accession to the EU.
THE ROLE OF A REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AGENCY
Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) are key actors in the elaboration and implementation of economic development strategies at regional level. Where there is no RDA’s, development actions are badly synchronized since horizontal links and coordination are often weak. Where an RDA exists, there is an institutional frame for linking a range of actions and ensuring that they are in line with the diverse set of common objectives agreed by the various stakeholders. These stakeholders include:
- Local authorities
- Local communities
- Chambers of commerce and employers’ associations
- Research and education institutions
- Local development organizations
- NGOs
- Business service providers
- Labor market organizations
- Trade-unions
The RDA’s unique structure and organization (legal nature, management board configuration, accountability towards a varied set of stakeholders) allows it to create missing horizontal and cross-cutting links at all institutional levels through its relationships with the region’s economic and institutional actors. These relationships emerge through the interested parties’ active involvement in the regional economic development strategy and their ensuing detailed understanding of the regional development process.
The RDA must build strong regional partnerships for development programming and implementation. Regional economic development is a long-term process and its biggest challenge is the need to combine or reconcile short-medium and long-term priorities. Hence, to permanently maintain quality development planning and to fulfill the common expectations of regional stakeholders, their representatives must be actively involved in the continuous planning and implementation process.
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The Development of RDAs in B&H
The RDAs are essentially non profit-making organizations, founded by the public, private and non-governmental sectors, to contribute to overall economic development. They are instruments to support economic regeneration, job creation and human resource and infrastructure development in the different regions.
The regional process was elaborated within the “EU Support to Regional Economic Development – EURED” project framework (March 2003 – October 2005). Two of five agencies (ARDA and REDAH) were established from scratch while NERDA was founded from an amalgamation of five sub-regional and local agencies in the North-East. REZ and SERDA were pre-existing organizations which were developed in line with the overall regional approach.
All five agencies are pursuing their mission of strengthening the economic foundations of their regions. All have a corps of well educated and strongly motivated staff that received substantial training and coaching from international experts during the EURED project (phase I).
The five Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) will increasingly be the catalyst of the regional economic development process in B&H; they will be in charge of a number of actions to support the SME sector, in particular they will:
- strengthen communication, understanding and cooperation between public bodies (at all levels) and the private sector
- implement specific project related to the business infrastructure, such as industrial and technology parks, entrepreneurship centers and so on
- implement specific projects related to financial support, to fulfill the need that SMEs have for funds. RDAs could have a loan guarantee fund for SME development
- provide special advisory and technical assistance-oriented services, such as business and information service for start-ups.
Regional Development Agencies in B&H
ARDA – covers the Northwest economic region
NERDA – covers the Northeast economic region
REDAH – covers the Herzegovina economic region
REZ – covers the Central B&H economic region
SERDA-covers the Sarajevo Macro Region
EU Support
The European Union has actively supported local and regional economic development projects in B&H since 1999, first with pilot projects in Tuzla, Mostar and Brcko District, followed by the Quick Impact Facility in 2000, which supported job creation schemes and fostered the first local or sub-regional development initiatives.
From March 2003 to October 2005, EU RED (EC support for Regional Economic Development in Bosnia and Herzegovina) has been a key project, charged with four major tasks: a framework for regional development; the establishment and capacity building of Regional Development Agencies (RDAs); the creation of Regional Economic Development Strategies and a Project Fund which provides co-financing grants.
Through the RED fund, the EU has provided grants for economic development projects targeting Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and tourism. Since the publication of the five regional development Strategies in December 2004, project proposals must be directly linked to the priorities set out in the strategy and have the endorsement of the relevant RDA.
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EU RED II project – EU support to SMEs and regional economic development (RED) in B&H was launched in December 2005 based on the results achieved under the previous EU RED project. The activities of the EURED project will be focused on the following:
1. Institutional support
2. Capacity building
3. EURED fund
4. Communications and knowledge transfer.
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Within the context of institutional support, the project will conduct an analysis of the current institutional framework for SMEs and RED as well as support development of draft law on SMEs development and promotion and White book for regional economic development. The project will provide support to the Ministry for foreign trade and economic relations in establishment of Council for development and entrepreneurship and in preparatory activities for future establishment of the Development and Entrepreneurship Agency.
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New activities related to capacity building (including trainings and study tours) will support Ministry for foreign trade and economic relations and Council for development and entrepreneurship while the capacity building activities directed toward RDAs will continue the process previously launched under the EU RED project. The above will include update of regional strategies and action plans as well as technical assistance for the purpose of supporting pilot projects and further advancement of the team through specific training modules and one-to-one instructions.
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The activities related to Regional Economic Development Fund will be continued with the aim of providing assistance to the European Commission in preparing call for proposals and awarding grants, monitoring of the funds for RDAs' operational costs as well as assistance to RDAs in monitoring of the sub-projects. Moreover, the institutionalization of the Regional Economic Development Fund will be advocated in the light of the future pre-accession contex.
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Knowledge transfer activities will be focused on fostering discussion between RED and SME actors through seminars, networks and development of electronic library of relevant literature related to SME and RED that will be afterwards transferred to the project beneficiaries.