On 13 May, the Gender Equality Committee held a sitting in the form of a roundtable to discuss female entrepreneurship in Serbia. The sitting was chaired by Gordana Paunovic-Milosavljevic, Committee Chairperson.

Mira Marjanovic, representative of the Gender Equality Directorate at the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, revealed data that show that the position of women in the job market was becoming more unfavourable and that 53% of the unemployed were women. She stressed that at the National strategy for the improvement of the position of women and improvement of gender equality gives priority to a higher employment of women and that an action plan for its implementation would in elaborate the measures and activities that should contribute to the strengthening of their economic situation more detail.

Ana Trbovic, Director of the FEFA Center for European Integration briefed the Committee members on the position of women company owners, managers and directors in Serbia. Sanja Popovic-Pantic of the Association of Business Women of Serbia presented the society’s activities and examples of good practice in the development of female entrepreneurship in Serbia.

In the discussion the officials pointed out the need to secure budgetary funds to finance a programme aimed at developing female entrepreneurship (from the Development Fund, NIP and other state institutions). It was also said that in the preparation of the new development strategy for small and medium enterprises, supporting female entrepreneurship should be given more attention.

They also pointed out the importance of creating the conditions and establishing mechanisms for the implementation of the Gender Equality Law.