A BRIEF OUTLOOK ON THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SMALL AND MEDIUM BUSINESS
WHO WE ARE
The National Association of Small and Medium Business (NASMB) Bulgaria is established in 2000 and is one of the representative Bulgarian employer’s organisations active in the fields of innovation and knowledge economy. Our mission is purposeful participation in the formation of a knowledge-based society in Europe, with a particular emphasis on the countries of Southeast Europe and Bulgaria, in order to support and foster the establishment of a favorable business environment for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) development and to raise their competitiveness. Its activities encourage the growth of the economies in the region through the promotion of innovation and transfer of advanced technologies and know-how. NASMB facilitates this process by participating in the cross-border cooperation, networking and capacity building of NGOs, public and private agencies, and companies through elaboration and implementation of various local and international projects. Among others NASMB specialises in three main thematic areas that constitute important pillars of a knowledge society: Information Society, Innovation and Technology Transfer and competitive traditional economic activities with smart specialization. In these fields NASMB is engaged in applied research and analyses, public policy support and advocacy, capacity building, training, and knowledge and innovation brokerage.
WHAT WE DO
Members of NASMB are regional associations, branch associations /as collective members/, micro, small and medium-size companies, self-employed and managers. NASMB member companies are from a wide range of business spheres – agriculture, food and light industry, telecommunications, construction, machine building, trade, tourism, creative industries, various other services, etc.
NASMB has established fruitful contacts and successfully cooperates with many organisations in Bulgaria involved in research and innovations such as Bulgarian Government Agency for Encouragement of SMEs, Center for Economic Development, Employers’ Union, Bulgarian Association of Industrial Capital, Center for Development of Entrepreneurship, Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and other NGOs. Our partners and/or customers are the Ministry of Education, Youth and Science, Ministry of agriculture, food and forestry, Ministry of economy, Ministry of tourism, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia University, University of National and World Economy, State University for Library Studies and Information Technologies, Thracian University, New Bulgarian University, South-West University, University for Architecture and Geodesy, Varna Free University, Centre for Creative Learning, some of the largest multi-profile hospitals of Bulgaria, etc.
In 2002 NASMB became a Member of the Council for Euro communication to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Through the functions of its Chairperson for several years NASMB was represented in the Credit Council of the Encouragement Bank of Bulgaria and from 2007 to 2009 the Association was a member of the Social Council to the Deputy Prime Minister of Bulgaria. From 2007 NASMB is a member of the Monitoring Committee of the Rural Development Programme 2007 – 2013 & 2014-2020, Operational Programme Aquaculture and Fisheries 2007-2013 & Maritime and Fisheries Program 2014-2020.
NASMB is in partnership with Bulgarian municipalities and local governments and other European countries. In different projects NASMB worked together with the Municipality of Munich – Germany, Community Mountain “Appennino Forlivese” – Italy, Toplicki District – Serbia, Bratislavský samosprávny kraj – Slovakia, Regione di Veneto, Umbria, Lombardia, Bergamo and Abruzzo in Italy, Marshal’s Office of Podolskie Voivodeship – Poland, Turkish municipalities of Edirne, Istanbul, Luleburgas, Kirklareli, Yalova; Macedonian municipalities Strumitsa and Shtip, and many others.
NASMB has participated in the elaboration and implementation of many local and international projects. It pioneered the development of a guarantee fund by participating in the international project GO NETWORK – Guarantee Organizations Network under the INTERREG II B CADSES programme. In the international project REVITA – Development of Small and Medium-size Railway Stations into Multipurpose Local Service Centers under the same programme, a lot of research about the usability and development of this kind of stations was done. The third international project in this row was RIMADIMA –Risk-, Disaster-Management & prevention of natural hazards in mountainous and / or forested regions, where a new decision support system was developed. Another international project of this type was TELMI – International European integration on the labor market through information technologies. The international project SOCIALSME was implemented under the Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation programme with further development of an innovative product. Another Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation international project was CREATIN – Creativity Techniques for Innovation in Products and Services. EUFACINET – European Facilitators Network, was an international Leonardo da Vinci project for development of a methodology for facilitation of the training and elaboration of human resources qualifications using working situations. “ICT4LLL” is a Leonardo da Vinci Life Long Learning Project for implementation of ICT at all levels of education and training with NASMB being responsible for research and development of vocational training.
Through the European Commission Business Support Program NASMB developed South- East European Business Network which is facilitating micro and small businesses to increase their competitiveness.
There are many other projects from different programmes in which NASMB took part such as PHARE, EuropeAid, Civil Society Dialogue Programme – European Aid for Turkey, INREREG, Kife Long Learning, etc.
Another important projects that NASMB has implemented are:
“More dialogue – more cooperation”, Europe Aid for Turkey for establishment of Bulgarian – Turkish Bussiness Forum of SMEs.
“European Citizen working for the global development agenda”, Europe Aid/126341/C/ACT/Multi to flight against poverty.
“ORBEK – Introduction of contemporary system for prevention, early warning and reduction of risk in disaster, damages and accidents”.
“South - - Eastern European Network on Balkans – Cross – Border Region Bulgaria – Turkey – 2007CB16IPO008-2009-051.
South – East European Network on Balkans – Cross border region – BG – RS 2007CB16IPO006-2009-1-31.
”E-commerce in support of exports from the cross – border region Strumica – Kyustendil” – BG-MK 2007CB16IPO007-2011-2-92.
“CBC women entrepreneurs - Together in Business” – Cross border region BG – TR No. 2007CB16IPO008-2011-2-014.
‘Youth Career Development, Employment, Entrepreneurship Networking and TRANSFER” bg-rs 2007CB16IPO006-2011-2-138.
Project “Developing a regional distinctive socio – economic identity in cross – border area Olt – Plewen” 27850/11.04.2012.
Project Youge Leaders:” Developing and enhancing leadership skills for youge manegers it times of crisis: an innovative training package for European young professionals” (LLP-LdV-Tol-12-CY-1671210) -Project N: 2012-1-CY1-LEO05-02319
Project “Heritage Story Telling – Quality Interpretation No.2013-1-BG1-leo05-08769, service “Transfer of Innovation" sectoral " Leonardo da Vinci " , " Lifelong Learning Program”.
“Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs”, No.30G-ENT001C051 and many others……….
At present since 1st of August, 2017 NASMB is implementing trans-national project SMEs INNOvation BOOSTingq financed by BALKAN-MEDITERRANEAN Program 2014 - 2020 – in which it is Lead Partner of 10 project partners for 5 countries between them – Bulgarian, Macedonian and Albanian National Statistic Institutes.
Due to the elaboration and implementation of many projects NASMB has accumulated versatile experience and has built a wide branched net not only of local, but also international partners. Some of them are Faculty of Economics and Management at Kaunas Technical University in Lithuania, Polytechnic University of Warsaw,Warsavia University College of technology and Business – Poland University of Krakow, Wroclaw University of Economics, University of Nis, European University Cyprus, University of Architecture of Bucharest, Riga Technical University, Institute for Socio-Scientific Consultancy in Regensburg, Faculty of Forestry from University of Skopie, Faculty of ,Forestry from University of Belgrade, West Pomeranian Business Schol in Szczecin – Poland, Center for Research and Technology Hellas – Greece, Lake Balaton Development Coordination Agency – Hungary, Nature Conservation BERKUT – Czech Republic, Ministry of Transport of the Republic of Slovenia, Public transport service agency of the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt – Germany, Polish State Railways, Agency for Community Development – Romania, Regionálna rozvojová agentúra Senec – Pezinok (Slovakia), KMU Forschung Austria, Handwerkskammer Trier – Germany, Budapest Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Development Agency Prefecture of Trikala – Greece, Istrian Development Agency – Italy, etc. In various projects as partners participated training and business organizations from Germany, Romania, Turkey, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Slovenia, Serbia, Denmark, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Austria, FYROM, Czech Republic, Italy, Poland, Belgium, Lithuania, Latvia, Ireland, Cyprus and many others.
