The opening event of the EU funded project “EU Support for the Introduction of Quality Management Systems – EU QMS BiH” was held on June 5th in Sarajevo. A promotional campaign will be organised with the aim of encouraging small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in BiH to participate in a quality certification process.
The campaign foresees five events to present the project to stakeholders and invite local SMEs to apply for free certification. A total of 100 SMEs in BiH will benefit from free support to prepare them for a quality management system (QMS) and obtain certification in accordance with ISO 9001:2008.
Bearing in mind the highly competitive nature of foreign markets, the EU in particular, QMS certification may be a key element in securing the necessary competitive advantage necessary to enter those markets. The project’s goal is to increase the competitiveness of local small and medium sized enterprises on foreign markets.
“This Project is part of EU efforts to strengthen the competitiveness of the domestic economy through direct support to the SME sector in BiH. Implementation of QMS will provide improvements in business processes of SMEs by reducing operating costs, increasing efficiency and achieving much greater potential for exports and increased employment”, said Head of Operations Section for Economic Development, Natural Resources and Infrastructure in the EU Delegation to BiH, Martin Schieder.
Maria Di Florio, Team Leader of the project said: “All preparation processes for the certification will be implemented with the assistance of competent consultants selected in accordance with referent standards (e.g. ISO 10019:2005), and who have expertise in a particular sector for certain small or medium enterprise. In addition to support for QMS certification, SMEs will benefit from a full range of other skills that will be taught and that will enable them to become successful business entities on the domestic and foreign markets.“
Each pilot SME will receive an individually tailored plan for growth and business development. At the end of the application process, the Project team will select 100 companies and work with each of them until they are all fully prepared for certification.
“EU Support to Introduction of Quality Management Systems” is a 24-month project financed by the European Union under the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA 2009) to the tune of more than 1.8 million Euros.
The project is implemented by D’Appolonia S.p.A. in consortium with IBF and TIM Know How.
