EUR 40 million will be available to Macedonian companies through the Enterprise Innovation Fund (ENIF), which launched its operations in Skopje on Thursday.

Vice Premier for Economic Affairs Vladimir Pesevski, ENIF Skopje office director Tatjana Zabasu, and EU Delegation Head of Cooperation Martin Klaucke said at Thursday's press conference that the funds were intended for start-up businesses and SMEs.

"The Government has recognized the significance of the regional fund as complementary to its Innovation Promotion Programme, towards improvement of the competitiveness of the country's economy and business environment. We believe the ENIF office will make funds more available to Macedonian companies, along with facilitated administrative procedures", said Pesevski.

According to him, companies will be able to get direct funds for investments in technological development, improvement of product and service quality, thus enhancing their competitiveness in national, regional and European terms.

ENIF will cover 25-49 percent of the company's ownership, investing EUR 500,000-2 million per company.

"We want to invest in Macedonia because we came across talent and innovation that can develop into competition. We want to listen to ideas and proposals by companies, they can come to us any time, but we will also regularly organize meetings", said Zabasu.

The Enterprise Innovation Fund is a venture capital fund focusing on an investment portfolio consisting of innovative SMEs at various stages of business development, from the seed to expansion phase, in the Western Balkans. ENIF aims at reinforcing the financial structure of innovative SMEs resulting in a strong and bankable balance sheet.

ENIF focuses on highly specialised, innovative SMEs in Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia.

Investors into ENIF are the European Commission, the European Investment Fund (EIF), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) together with institutional and private investors from the Western Balkans. ENIF also foresees a participation from the beneficiary economies of the Western Balkans.