The Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro, Her Excellency Oana Cristina Popa, and the Minister of Science of Montenegro, Sanja Damjanovic, visited the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center Tehnopolis with their associates today. The reason for the visit was the presentation of the support provided by the European Union to improve the capacity of IEC Tehnopolis, which will be used to support the innovative development of small and medium enterprises in Montenegro.
At the beginning of the event, the Executive Director of IEC Tehnopolis, Ratko Batakovic, addressed the audience, expressing satisfaction with the results achieved, but also the future activities of Tehnopolis: “All activities and events we organize in Tehnopolis and elsewhere are primarily to support business development, competitiveness of our economy through the promotion of new technologies and the application of innovations from all areas of the economy. This year, we are witnessing major and rapid changes in the economic environment, so our additional obligation is to provide as much, high quality, content and timely support as possible in the set of support measures we provide to business idea holders. ” is glad that Tehnopolis is now operating at full capacity since it implements a large number of projects funded by EU funds through which activities are carried out to further support the development of innovative ideas and startup ecosystems of Montenegro.
Her Excellency Oana Cristina Popa then addressed the audience, saying that she was very pleased to be able to testify that the support provided by the EU helps Montenegrin entrepreneurs to create new economic value and new jobs based on innovative ideas and new technologies. “EU investment worth over 800,000 euros in equipment that is crucial for three laboratories in Tehnopolis will provide Montenegrin SMEs with the tools they need to develop products and services that can be competitive in domestic and international markets,” Popa added.
As she said, the support she provides to EU initiatives such as Tehnopolis and the Smart Specialization Strategy aims to strengthen innovation policy planning, respond to shortcomings and challenges and support long-term recovery, digital transition and competitiveness of the Montenegrin economy.
The Minister of Science of Montenegro, Ms. Sanja Damjanovic, PhD, said that the Government of Montenegro and the Ministry of Science had a clear vision: innovative Montenegro, an attractive destination for technological entrepreneurship and testing of new technologies, and that vision constantly yielded thorough and great results. On this occasion, she expressed satisfaction with the recently received highest grade by the European Commission in this area. “What we want and encourage is the development of an innovative economy, and the key foundation for that is infrastructure. Tehnopolis is the first link to the Science and Technology Park that we are implementing in Montenegro. The Government of Montenegro has allocated about 20 million euros for the realization of Tehnopolis and the central unit of the Science and Technology Park, which is currently being built in Podgorica. Our development would not be possible if we did not have the most important partner, the European Commission, and what makes me especially happy today is that Tehnopolis got a new soul, and that is equipment for three laboratories donated by the European Union through a very important support instrument – IPA “, said Damjanovic. In the end, she concluded that Montenegro is part of Europe, but what we all need to work on is for Montenegro to become part of the EU family.
After the introductory speeches, the manager for project activities and entrepreneurship development, Aleksandar Janicic, presented all segments of work, as well as projects implemented by IEC Tehnopolis, which are funded by the European Union.
The participants then had the opportunity to visit the infrastructure capacities of IEC Tehnopolis: Biolab, TECH lab and DATA center, whose equipment was funded by the EU and co-financed by the Government of Montenegro through the project “Improvement of infrastructure related to research and innovation that can be used to support small and medium-sized enterprises “.
