The representative of the NGO Mladiinfo Montenegro attended the conference of the Employment Agency (Bureau) on the occasion of the second Public call for Grants for employment on June the 12th 2020 at the EU Info Center.
At the end of last year, the Employment Agency started the implementation of the 3.5 million € “Grants Program for Self-Employment”, which is co-financed by the European Union and the Government of Montenegro. Grants from three to 7.5 thousand €, over three one-year cycles, will be awarded to 400 beneficiaries of self-employment grants.
As it was emphasized, the project is part of the 18 million € program of the European Union and Montenegro for the sectors of employment, education and social inclusion, in which the EU participates with 15.3 million €, and the Government with 2.7 million €. Of that, 8.7 million was allocated to the employment sector, of which 3.5 to the Employment Agency, in order to implement self-employment activities.
“Today we present the second Public call for Grants for self-employment within the project Self-Employment Grants Program, which is co-financed by the European Union and the Government of Montenegro for the education and social inclusion sectors worth 18 million €. The EU participates in this program with 15.3 million € and the Government of Montenegro with 2.7 million €. The program was adopted in 2015 and the financial agreement was signed in 2018. From this program, 8.7 million € have been allocated for the employment sector, of which 3.5 million € to Employment Agency (ZZZCG) in order to implement self-employment activities. By allocating funds to unemployed people through three one-year cycles for starting their own business, we want to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit of individuals with an emphasis on hard-to-employ people from the Employment Agency and then support entrepreneurship with the goal of creating about 400 jobs in Montenegro, said the Minister of Labor and Social Welfare, Kemal Purisic.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare will also organize two calls intended for employment in less developed municipalities in Montenegro. These funds will be operational in the next few months of which the public will be informed.
“I want to wish success to all potential applicants of this Second Call on behalf of the Government of Montenegro and on my own behalf, in the hope that these funds will be an incentive and that the business idea will develop good and sustainable businesses in the domestic market”, said Purisic.
“I would like to thank the EU, which is helping future entrepreneurs in our country through the first grant. This great support to the Bureau was provided by the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare. This program and all individual programs are a state project and the result of good cooperation between our administration, the Government of Montenegro and the EU in Montenegro. Forty-four people from ZZZCG from the First public call have already received grants from the EU from 3 to 7, 5 thousand €. Many of them have already started to realize their business ideas. This year, the Bureau will start with the implementation of the program of grants for self-employment financed by the EU”, said the director of the Employment Bureau, Suljo Mustafic. The specific goal of these programs is to raise awareness of entrepreneurship.
The director of ZZZ specified that every unemployed person who is on the records of the Bureau, for at least four months, on this day, will have the right to apply, in this invitation.
“In the second call, the emphasis will be on young people, women and the long-term unemployed. The obligation of the Office is to pay the users up to 80 percent of the funds within 30 days from the day of signing the contract. On the other hand, the obligation of the user is to purposefully spend the incentive non-refundable funds, from three to 7.5 thousand €”, Mustafic pointed out.