STIMULATING ENTREPRENEURSHIP

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STIMULATING ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN LABIN
Labin, 2007
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Where we are...
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LABIN is a town in Istrian County with 12.626
inhabitants and about 24.356 people in Labin area
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In the past Labin with its surrounding area was...
Industrial center
Mining center
Tourist destination
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The ratio of employed and unemployed between 1980
and 1995
In 2001 the number of unemployed reached the
peak of 2.298
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The analysis of unemployment according to the
level of education says that from 1996 2000
there was
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Conclusion

• Increase of unemployment as a consequence of
  economic
• turbulences loss of the market,
  close-down, privatisation and
• recovery of business enterprises

2. Most of the unemployed are women from 24 to 38
years of age, with no work experience or with
a length of service from 10 to 20 years,
mainly low qualified (elementary school or less)
3. A significant influence of seasonal employment
in the tourist industry
Measures applied
- Entrepreneurial incubator
- Creating entrepreneurial areas
- Credit lines for small entrepreneurs
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ENTREPRENEURIAL INCUBATOR
In 1998 the Municipality of Labin started with
the adaptation of a former hotel into small and
medium business premises
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Entrepreneurial incubator investors (in thousands
of kuna)
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Employment

• At first, there were 31 employees
• Today, 192 employees work in 13 different
  activities

In 2001 rewarded as THE BEST Incubator in Croatia
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Entrepreneurial areas
In Labin, there are 4 entrepreneurial areas
Ripenda Okno
Pjacal
Starci
(13750 m2, 4 lots, 2 entrepreneurs)
(10 entrepreneurs)
(60000 m2, 14 lots, 27 entrepreneurs)
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Service area Vinez
(150.000 m2)
Craftsmen and entrepreneurs from Labin can
operate in the area if they

• build new infrastructure in given deadline

• start their own business

• hire a certain number of new employees

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Signing of the sales contracts
Privileges for the entrepreneurs in the area

• 50 lower public utility tax

• privileged lot price was 7 euros/m2

Incomes obtained from lot sale contests in Vinez
area are being invested in further equipping of
new area Vinež II and existing areas
Pjacal, Ripenda Verbanci and Rogocana
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The investors for entrepreneurial area Vinez were

• Istrian Development Agency (with know-how)

• Ministery for Craftsmanship, Small and Medium
  Enterprises of Croatia (Programme for development
  of entrepreneurial areas in Croatia)

• Istrian County (through budget)

• Municipality of Labin (through budget)

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Credit lines for small entrepreneurs

• The Municipality of Labin participates in
  crediting small
• entrepreneurs

• municipality credit lines
• 1998 credit fund of 1 200 000 kn
• 2002 credit fund of 3 000 000 kn
• joint finances from banks and the Municipality
  of Labin

• participation of small entrepreneurs
• in Istria County credit lines

• Agricultural and agritourism development fund
  for Istria

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The most significant credit line
Poduzetnik 2 (Entrepreneur 2)

• The Municipality of Labin participated with 2
  in co-financing the
• credit rate for entrepreneurs and craftsmen in
  the whole area

• Entrepreneurs from Labin were given 39 loans of
  30.996.043 kunas, whereas the total credit fond
  for Istrian County was 120.000.000 kunas

• in 2004 the annual City budget participates with
  540.000 kunas

• in 2005 the budget participates with 570.000
  kunas

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Press clipping
The economy of Istrian County in 2003 was again
considered as one of most successful regional
economies in Croatia. As one of the most
prominent economies, we should point out the
economy of Labin area, which in 2003 recorded a
growth of added value by 56 and an efficiency
growth by 89, compared to last years results.

• Croatian Chamber of Commerce INTELEKTUALNI
  KAPITAL - Uspjesnost na nacionalnoj zupanijskoj
  i poduzetnickoj razini 2003., (a study on
  accomplishment of regional economies on national
  level)
• Zagreb, June 2004, p. 12

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In the past few years there has been a decreasing
trend of the number of recorded unemployed
people, as the picture below shows
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Boost-IT

• Project acronym Boost-IT
• Project full title Set-up of a Collaborative
  Permanent Network for Boosting the participation
  of Incubated SMEs in Innovation Processes under
  FP6 Activities
• Proposal/Contract No. 023437
• Duration 30 months (from 01-01-2006 to
  30-06-2008)
• Budget 754.680,00
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• The BOOST-IT project is targeted towards the
  promotion of SMEs from the Information and
  Society Technologies (IST) sector in FP6 and FP7
  activities, through means of enhancing the
  innovation and RD capabilities of SMEs in
  Portugal, Poland, Slovenia, Israel, Ukraine and
  Croatia incubators. Boost-ITproject will focus on
  these specific targets
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• To create awareness among SMEs towards to the EC
  FPs opportunities
• To cooperate with SMEs in order to map their
  potentialities and weaknesses
• To stimulate potential innovative ideas to
  diversify their offer and enhance their
  competitiveness
• To assist SMEs expanding proposals to the EC FPs
  instruments
• To assist SMEs finding the appropriate partners
  to their innovation projects
• To train SMEsto use tools that optimise their
  involvement in European innovation projects
• To assist SMEs in the design of proper
  exploitation plans for their innovations.

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Boost-IT

• The goal's success will be based on the
  cooperation between a set of experienced InnSP
  and management bodies of small, ICT oriented
  incubators which will jointly develop a new
  added-value range of services for incubated SMEs.
  The cooperation will focus on developing and
  validating a set of innovation services,
  previously customized to the specific needs of
  the incubated SMEs, and simultaneously promote
  the creation of innovation and RD structures
  within new incubated companies and training them
  to efficiently use a set of innovation management
  tools.
• To measure the partners efforts to accomplish
  the mentioned goals, Boost-IT project must
  perform
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• 150 technology audits with the Technological
  Audit Tool developed by the project coordinator
  and available to all project partners
• A list of ongoing IST-projects suitable for SME
  participation
• A minimum of 25 RD structures within incubated
  SMEs and micro-enterprises, including stimulation
  to use the national measures, recruitment of PhD
  staff, etc.
• The training of 100 SMEs in the EC FPs
  opportunities and the use of supporting tools to
  convert potential project ideas into proposals
• Provide assistance to a minimum of 30 new ideas
  generated by the incubated SMEs under the
  universe of Boost-IT partnership and triggered
  by the awareness activities within the project
  activities
• Perform the integration of 20 incubated SMEs in
  ISTprojects generated within the extended network
  of the InnSPs partners
• A list of at least 40 SMEs with women in
  scientific managing positions involved in FP6 and
  FP7 projects due to Boost-IT project
• The results' dissemination to a minimum of 1000
  SMEs.

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Boost-IT
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Awards
The Federation of Croatian Town and Municipality
associations, the Central State administration
office and the Council of Europe awarded the
Municipality of Labin for the project
Entrepreneurial incubator. Labin was given the
Acknowledgment for the best practice in local
administration in 2004 for solving the
unemployment issue.
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Thank You for Your Attention!!!