Danilovgrad, 17 May 2022

Norway Supports Standardization of Small Businesses

This project, implemented by the NGO Business Center from Nikšić in partnership with the Municipality of Danilovgrad, supports seven small businesses in increasing their competitiveness and promoting best practices of quality, safety and trust in small business production through the implementation of relevant ISO standards.

Within the project "Implementation of Environmental Management and Quality System", supported by the Kingdom of Norway through the project "Norway for you - Montenegro", the first training for internal auditors for ISO standard Quality Management System ISO 9001: 2015 and Environmental Protection Management Systems ISO 14001: 2015 was held in Danilovgrad. This project, implemented by the NGO Business Center from Nikšić in partnership with the Municipality of Danilovgrad, supports seven small businesses in increasing their competitiveness and promoting best practices of quality, safety and trust in small business production through the implementation of relevant ISO standards.

"Through this project, our organization will support seven youth-owned companies, which will implement and adopt practices in accordance with ISO 9001: 2015 and ISO 14001: 2015. In this way, it will gain internationally recognized compliance that will contribute to trust in the services and goods of small businesses," Darko Žugić, Project Coordinator and Executive Director of the NGO Business Centre said.

The final beneficiaries of the project are seven small and medium enterprises from Danilovgrad, Nikšić, Bijelo Polje and Mojkovac, among which are young entrepreneurs under the age of 35 who operate mainly in underdeveloped municipalities.

"The municipality of Danilovgrad gave its contribution in the selection and supported the project idea in solving socio-economic problems and promoting small businesses in underdeveloped municipalities through the implementation of ISO standards. The promotion will be realized through special meetings with the beneficiaries, and the municipal team will provide them with support to fulfill the objectives of the project," the Project Manager in the Municipality of Danilovgrad, Darko Mrvaljević said.

The project will help small businesses to benefit from the implementation of ISO standards by identifying their current processes, analyzing risk, as well as identifying all opportunities for business improvement, following the recommendations of these ISO standards provided by consultants and experts for their implementation in order to develop business awareness in line with environmental objectives in order to strengthen the social responsibility of all companies supported by this project.

"The support of the Kingdom of Norway through the project "Norway for you - Montenegro" is focused on small businesses, which will through transformation contribute to the development and growth of the economy in Montenegro," said the "Norway for you - Montenegro" Project Manager Armen Čekić.

The project "Implementation of Environmental Management and Quality System" is funded by the Kingdom of Norway through the project "Norway for you - Montenegro" with some 35,000 Euros.