The government has done a lot in creating a better and more stimulating environment for the work of start-ups in Montenegro, primarily in the form of new legal solutions that will significantly support innovative ideas, said the State Secretary for Innovation of the Ministry of Science, Saša Ivanović.
He said that with the new legal solutions on innovations and incentives for innovation research, they finally recognized the concept of startup, especially innovative startup, a term that will be used for the first time in Montenegrin legislation.
"With the new law on innovations, we will enable the creation of a new financial institution on our market, that is, an innovation fund that will finance innovations in a focused way and be able to support the complete process of developing innovative ideas from its creation to commercialization," Ivanović told the Mina- agency. business.
He explained that this financial institution will have a wide range of support programs, depending on the level of development and the need to work on that innovative idea, and in cooperation with non-financial instruments such as mentoring, will help new companies.
"As for the environment for startups in Montenegro, unfortunately it was not adequate in the previous period and our startups, due to the lack of finance and non-financial support, had to look for investments for their ideas outside the country, so we had several examples of our young people there received investment in the region or the countries of the European Union (EU) and Great Britain and achieved significant results", said Ivanović.
After that period, as he added, the desire to work from here returned, so some of them created a sister company in Montenegro, in order to build the development part of the team here, and base sales in those countries where there is a better connection with investors and the market. .
"Unlike that period, now the situation is much different. "The government has done a lot in creating a better and more stimulating environment for the work of startups in Montenegro, primarily work on new legal frameworks, which are in the final phase," Ivanović stated.
According to him, the environment will change significantly because with the new legal solutions, startups will have more significant support, they will be able to reduce their costs, which are equal to those of large companies.
"In this way, we want to encourage them to overcome those problems at the very beginning of development and get from us additional zest and momentum to survive in the period when the mortality rate of these companies is the highest," added Ivanovic.
He reminded that there are other types of support, such as infrastructure such as the Science and Technology Park (STP) and various mentoring support programs funded by the Ministry. In the pre-acceleration support program, implemented by the Ministry, startup teams work on the development of their ideas with the help of mentoring support.
Ivanović, when asked how much the coronavirus pandemic affected the digitization process, said that many companies have now realized that it is very important to have a digital form of offering to clients.
"The pandemic has in a way significantly accelerated the digitization of companies and many of them, through new websites and social networks, have created this type of offer and contact with clients," said Ivanovic.
He said that he hopes to improve the possibility of payments from abroad in the coming period.
"We have significant problems with sales abroad. Our Ministry is working intensively on enabling this type of service, and we are in the final phase of negotiations with an important strategic partner that would also enable this type of sale, the so-called e-commerce, where our citizens or companies could quickly pay for their products and services. which they want to market outside of Montenegro," explained Ivanovic.
He said that domestic innovative companies played a big role during the pandemic.
"The Learn at Home platform, developed by the company Amplitudo, represents an extremely good way of communication between teachers and students, followed by the company Fleka, which developed new software solutions for the National Coordinating Body for Infectious Diseases (NCT), so that citizens are always informed about the number of infected people and the amount of donations collected," Ivanovic said.
Companies that owned 3D printers, as he recalled, reacted extremely quickly and made their printers available to print protective equipment.
"In their desire to help overcome the crisis, those companies made their resources available very sincerely, in cooperation with the NTP, which coordinated those activities at the level of Montenegro," Ivanović added.
He recalled that some 40 3D printers were put to use and during this period, about ten thousand visors were printed, and parts for medical equipment and protective masks were made, which significantly helped the health system.
Ivanovic told young people who have an idea to be encouraged to work on it and try to realize it.
"They are not alone now, apart from the new legal solutions. They have significant opportunities to work together with us and mentors on the development of ideas, and we invite them to contact us in order to provide them with some form of support," Ivanović concluded.
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