On Thursday, 24 January 2008, USAID’s Economic Security Program and the Municipality of Medvedja will sign an agreement to formalize the roles and responsibilities related to the implementation of the “Youth Entrepreneurship Initiative in Medvedja Municipality” project. The event will gather municipal and Jablanicki district officials, representatives of the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Republic of Serbia, representatives of the Coordination Body for south Serbia, local NGO representatives, teachers and students from Medvedja high schools and media. Mr. Michael Pillsbury, the program Director, will sign the agreement with Mr. Slobodan Draskovic, Medvedja mayor.
On Thursday, 24 January 2008, USAID’s Economic Security Program and the Municipality of Medvedja will sign an agreement to formalize the roles and responsibilities related to the implementation of the “Youth Entrepreneurship Initiative in Medvedja Municipality” project. The event will gather municipal and Jablanicki district officials, representatives of the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Republic of Serbia, representatives of the Coordination Body for south Serbia, local NGO representatives, teachers and students from Medvedja high schools and media. Mr. Michael Pillsbury, the program Director, will sign the agreement with Mr. Slobodan Draskovic, Medvedja mayor.
This event will demonstrate the joint commitment of the municipality of Medvedja and USAID's Economic Security Program to promote and support the development of entrepreneurial and business skills among young people in Medvedja. The project entails the establishment of a Youth Entrepreneurship Center in Medvedja municipality, with the purpose of proving a wide range of business services and trainings to the existing and prospective young entrepreneurs in Medvedja. The end result of the project aims to foster entrepreneurship in the municipality. The Project will be implemented by the NGO “People’s Parliament“ from Leskovac and NGO “GO-JA“ from Medvedja, and is supported by the Ministry of Youth and Sports. This project is a part of a wider project called “Youth Entrepreneurship Development Initiative in Southern Serbia“ which incorporates in its scope of activities the municipalities of Lebane and Leskovac.
The transition process towards market economy has affected substantially employment opportunities and created an extremely competitive market environment. In this situation, young and inexperienced entrepreneurs lack business, marketing and communication skills to respond to the market challenges and to maintain their businesses profitable. Young people constitute 33% of the Medvedja population, many of which are unemployed. Establishment of the Entrepreneurship Center will help young people in Medvedja to not only find, but also to create job opportunities for themselves, thus enabling them to earn a living and take an active participation in the life of their local community.
USAID’s Economic Security program aims at helping businesses in difficult environments grow and provide employment opportunities for the country’s most vulnerable populations in seven target municipalities. Youth is one of the program’s key target groups. Working with young people to develop marketable skills is one of the USAID Economic Security Program’s priorities.
Journalists interested in attending the event are kindly invited to be at the Municipal Assembly building, Medvedja, on Thursday, January 24 at 11:45.
For more information about this event please contact Jasmina Debeljak Maljković,
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, Public relations/Media Specialist, at (011) 363 9900, or Olivera Jovic,
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, Program Officer, at 063-240547. For more information about USAID’s activities in Serbia, please visit http://serbia-montenegro.usaid.gov