37492 Southeast Europe Enterprise Development Quarterly Report: October 1­ December 31, 2001 SOME SEED HIGHLIGHTS OF Q2 FY02 INVESTMENT ADVISORY SERVICES (IAS) · Business Linkages and SME-spinoffs The Tigar Rubber Products Company is a leading tire and rubber goods producer in Yugoslavia and the Balkans. Despite a decade of international isolation, the company maintained its commercial and technical joint venture with BF Goodrich and since 1997, Michelin Tires of France. IFC's regional investment department (SECA) is proposing to lend the company up to EUR 20 million in order to increase production capacity and throughput, and allow production of premium high speed tires. Michelin is interested in cooperating exclusively with Tigar's tire business thus necessitating an evaluation of the future viability of non-core business units as newly independent SMEs. The company has retained SEED to evaluate the feasibility of four projects -- spin-off SMEs designed to absorb excess assets and assets of non-core businesses and provide business opportunities for redundant workers. SEED also will evaluate the possibility to outsource other existing service operations of the company. · SEEBiz.net SEEBiz.net is a local language website and portal designed to serve the needs of SMEs in the SEED region. SEEBiz was first launched in Bosnia and Herzegovia and includes information needed by SMEs related to business registration, taxation, and local business development service providers. The site then provides sub-sector specific information including data on markets, regulations, production, etc. The first sub-sector launched covered the production and processing of fruits and vegetables. This quarter sub-sector data for dairy and wood/timber have been entered in BiH and the fruit and vegetable processing subpage was launched for Yugoslavia. Next quarter this subpage will be launched in Macedonia. To date, SEEBiz has attracted over 1600 visitors. On average the site gets 70 hits per user and the average length of visit is 20 minutes indicating that the user finds the site inviting enough to drill down for specific data. SEED is working to commercialize SEEBiz.net by attracting subscribers who have access to additional information in exchange for a fee and by attracting companies to place banner advertisements on the site. CAPACITY BUILDING (CB) · Tourism Development Initiative SEED has established the Tourism Development Initiative in cooperation with the municipalities of Budva and Kotor in Montenegro. Both municipalities have put up funds to support the creation and development of this initiative, have provided office space and have seconded a staff member half time to work with SEED experts in tourism to create a tourism association, develop a tourism development strategy for each town, design a short term tourism marketing plan and identify training needs. This project will focus on building better service skills in anticipation of the upcoming tourist season and developing strategies to lengthen the existing season beyond 6-8 weeks of concentrated demand. · Training of Trainers Agribusiness -- SEED delivered training to local consultants from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in two fields related to Agribusiness. Twenty-three consultants and trainers completed the T-o-T in marketing and 18 completed the T-o-T in EU standards. These local professional, experts in their own right, now have increased knowledge and training skills to help local SMEs better understand such issues as packaging and labeling requirements, good manufacturing practices, food safety and quality control in subsectors of fruit and vegetable processing, meat processing, wine making, and dairy processing. Executive Management for Owners of SMEs -- 12 consultants from four countries completed the T- o-T designed to help them assist SME owners and managers in matters of executive management including financial management and planning, human resources management, and strategic planning. BUSINESS ENABLING ENVIRONMENT (BEE) · Macedonia Leasing Law SEED provided a technical leasing expert to draft a financial leasing law and present it to the working group of the Ministry of Finance in Macedonia and individual local experts. The draft law was accepted by both of these groups and was presented to Parliament for consideration. We expect Parliament to adopt the law by the end of January 2002. Simultaneously SEED will continue to provide technical advise on the potential implementation of the law, raising awareness of SMEs of the benefits of financial leasing and working with IFC and other partners to identify and attract investment into a commercial leasing company for Macedonia. · Albania SME Map Together with the SME Department, SEED has completed the first draft of the SME Map for Albania. The Map highlights impediments and opportunities in four key areas: access to capital, access to information, availability and quality of business services and the general business environment. As part of the process, SEED co-sponsored a Private Sector Development Roundtable with IFC and MIGA which brought together representatives of the government, local businesses, and donors to discuss issues that currently impede SME development and investment in Albania. The private sector called upon the government for fuller cooperation and engagement with them on economic and legal matters. The subsequent resignation of 3 key ministers and most recently the prime minister of Albania has cast doubts and delays on the realization of improved cooperation between the private and public sectors. CORPORATE OUTREACH Q2 FY02 · Press Mentions and TV/ Radio Interviews · SEED Web-site Hits · Newsletter Copies Distributed · Annual Report Copies Distributed