About the Suport to SME Development in Armenia (SMEDA)
The private sector in Armenia faces challenges such as the lack of cohesion and coordination of different small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) support programmes, inefficient steering mechanisms for the SME development process, a fragmented landscape of stakeholders, and an inefficient public private dialogue as well as an inefficient decision- making process. The donor coordination process in different intervention areas is currently not government-driven.
The involvement of the private sector in SME development strategies is not effective and interests of SMEs are in fact not reflected in decision-making processes. Supporting services are insufficiently available – both in quality and quantity. Underdeveloped capacities within the organised private sector are main obstacles and barriers to the envisaged development.
Innovative ideas are hardly developed and are rarely transferred into business cases. Research and development are limited, in particular in the SME sector with hardly any cooperation of businesses and research entities. The innovative and creative potential of young specialists is not employed.
Access to finance is another major challenge for SMEs. Due to high debts – accrued during the global financial crisis and an associated decline in GDP (estimated 14% in 2009) – many Armenian SMEs have only limited access to further credits and loans. In general, lending policies of most banks and financial institutions do not encourage investments in SMEs.
With this situation for the private sector in Armenia, the EU-co-financed, GIZ-implemented project “Support to SME Development in Armenia” (SMEDA) was initiated in 2016. The project is in line with the EU Single Support Framework 2014-2017 for Armenia. It is furthermore consistent with the strategic framework documents of Armenia (Armenia Development Strategy and SME State Support Strategy) in order to facilitate their implementation.
The objective of the project is to improve the national business and investment climate and support the creation and development of SMEs to enable broad based growth.
The SMEDA-Project is part of the Regional Private Sector Development in South Caucasus Programme, which is operating in the three countries of the South Caucasus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. This umbrella programme faces the challenge of generating broad based inclusive growth to reduce the urban-rural gap and poverty above all in rural regions. In view of the small domestic markets with low purchasing power, the primary aim is to strengthen private sector development.
Target Group and Implementing Partners
The target group is composed of all relevant stakeholders involved in the development of SMEs in Armenia. This includes the political lead partner, the Ministry of Economy in Armenia, and the Small and Medium Entrepreneurship Development National Centre (SMEDNC), related sector associations, the Armenian Chambers of Commerce and designated SME support organisations.
An important project partner is the Armenian Enterprise Incubator Foundation (EIF), which implements parts of the project activities related to managing and monitoring of funds for start-ups and small businesses.
Another important target group is females and males, owners and employees of SMEs.
Planned Activities of SMEDA-Project
- Support to policy making by assisting the Armenian government to implement the SME strategy and to introduce a review mechanism for the SME development strategy and its action plans
- Support to policy implementation by strengthening the institutional capacities of the Ministry of Economy and the SMEDNC in terms of coordinating the implementation of the SME strategy and related action plans as well as developing an information portal to support business performance on foreign trade transactions
- Support to Public-Private Dialogue (PPD) by strengthening the capacities of the Ministry of Economy to manage the PPD process as well as to assess and recommend on dispute settlement mechanisms and platforms
- Provide technical assistance to private sector organisations to improve and expand services and to increase their network with European businesses
- Strengthening the capacities of private sector organisations to participate in PPD platforms and to utilize the opportunities of technology transfer as well as to promote entrepreneurial skills, clusters and value chain development
- Support to linking research institutions and the private sector to foster innovation
- Support to state bodies and the private sector to access EU innovation support resources and platforms such as the new EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (Horizon 2020)
- Strengthening capacities of the Ministry of Economy to design, implement and promote clusters
- Support to improving cluster management, linking clusters to European networks as well as developing and promoting new areas for business incubation
- Supporting the provision of grants to support technology start-ups and SMEs promoting new services/products
- Support to EIF and SMEDNC to design and implement business acceleration and coaching programmes for entrepreneurs and grant recipients
Context and current situation in the field of assignment
For a four-year Project with extensive and broad based activities within five result areas, the SMEDA Project needs to ensure visibility and broad dissemination of information to communicate with its different target groups and cover its activities nationwide – and beyond.
At present, a number of important activities commenced by the Project, such as competitions and Call for Proposals which were being disseminated via different channels including the EUD information platforms, websites of partners, public and private information platforms and open sources, etc. There is also the general EU4business.eu website that disseminate information about EU-funded projects within the EU4Business initiative in six Eastern Partnership countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. However, this is a rather general platform and does not allow a detailed and immediate or dynamic information flow. All mentioned existing online communication channels, are not sufficient and efficient to ensure the maximum expected outreach and transparency with possibilities of centralised coordination and tracking opportunity by SMEDA.
In addition, SMEDA is organising different workshops and sessions, which need to be thoroughly disseminated, displayed and archived for future use of the results and achievements. Given all the mentioned and most importantly the growing activities of the project that will tackle such important activities as the strengthening of private sector organisations, promoting HORIZON 2020 among national SMEs, supporting to the creation of economic clusters, supporting the innovative start-ups and businesses, etc., the need of developing and promoting a Website for the Project becomes an urgent issue as well as including functions such as polling, surveys etc.
Conditions and payment terms
The Contractor’s offer must include:
- The Financial offer requires the Contractor to submit for consideration a summary of costs with respect to the above sections
- The Technical offer requires the Contractor to submit details pertaining to the Contractor’s organization; the Contractors’ experience; comments/suggestions on the Terms of Reference, description of approach, methodology and work. The description of approach, methodology and work plan must include activities and deliverables as indicated in above table
Payment terms:
- Final payment upon fulfilment of the contract.
Coordination and communication
The Contractor reports to the Team Leader of the EU SMEDA Project, Ms. Eva Maria Näher and closely collaborates with the communication expert, Ms. Nune Kochinyan, as well as with the project experts and the administrative support team in Armenia.
Submission Requirements
The Contractor must fulfil the following requirements:
- Strong proven expertise in the area of assignment with sound portfolio of developed websites
- Flexibility and readiness to make adaptations/changes upon the request
- Proficiency in English and Armenian languages (written and spoken)