The Economic Pillar of the “SDGs for ALL” Platform organized a conference “SME Serbia 2030: Cooperation – a big step forward for „small“ businesses”, on November 25 at the Belgrade Impact Hub and online, through Zoom application. The event gathered the representatives of enterprises, development agencies, industrial parks and international development organizations. Within two thematic panels, the participants discussed successful cooperation models, including associations, clusters, incubators and technology parks, as well as possible modalities of cooperation between domestic SME “champions”, successful in global markets, and other SMEs.

There were two key conclusions of the conference. The first conclusion was that the SMEs can exceed limitations and fragmentation, originating from their size, through cooperation and networking, which can create benefits not just for themselves, but for the broader society as well. Second conclusion was that larger enterprises, already successful in global markets, should “pull” along smaller enterprises, which are close to meeting high business standards, but still unable to reach global markets.

Finally, deepening and expanding cooperation among the SMEs can significantly contribute to the development of the Serbian economy and the achievement of key sustainability goals and principles of the 2030 Agenda, such as decent employment, development of local communities, green growth and, above all, to leave no one behind.

The Conference video is available online.