ONLY one-quarter of all companies in Slovakia are active in various innovation activities and the proportion is even lower among small and medium-sized companies (SMEs), at 19.2 percent. For that reason the National Agency for Development of Small and Medium Enterprises has launched a project named Support for Innovations in Slovak Small and Medium-sized Companies, the TASR newswire wrote in mid July.
The project started in June and will last until May 2012 with support from the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme of the European Commission.
The aim of the project is to help Slovak SMEs obtain finances which can be used for innovation activities and to change the current trend in which small and medium-sized businesses in Slovakia only rarely invest in technological or process innovations or make innovations in services.
Part of this project is to map out supportive programmes and other kinds of initiatives that can finance innovations. A detailed analysis of needs, opinions and experiences of SMEs in this field is to be undertaken.
