BUSINESS PARTNER
INTERVIEW
JIRO TAKEICHI, CHIEF REPRESENTATIVE OF THE JICA BALKAN OFFICE
JAPANESE KNOW-HOW
For Serbian Businesses On the basis of the “Western Balkan Initiative” that was proposed by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2018, JICA has been engaged in providing technical and financial assistance to Serbia and other Balkan countries in their efforts to carry out reforms towards EU accession. Investment promotion, private sector development and environmental protection are all in the focus of JICA's engagements
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lthough Japanese companies don’t have a very heavy presence in the region, Japanese-style support for small and medium-sized enterprises is spreading to the Western Balkan countries. Here Jiro Takeichi, Chief Representative at the JICA Balkan Office, answers our questions related to JICA’s involvement in the region. How many companies can today pride themselves on being followers of your business style? - Around 200 mentors have been trained through the Project for the Establishment and Promotion of Mentoring Services in SMEs in the Western Balkans, which was first implemented in Serbia and then extended to other Balkan countries as well. After having acquired skills and techniques related to Japanese “Kaizen”, 5S and business consultancy, these mentors offer mentoring services based on the needs of SMEs. And the number of companies that have benefited from this project has risen to more than 2,600 to date. In order to provide high quality mentoring services to all companies, this project aimed
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to establish standardised mentoring techniques and improve the skills of trained mentors. As a result of this, mentors are able to analyse a specific company from a bird’s eye view and improve the ability to understand the actual needs of that company. In order to provide a few different solutions, mentors also need to adjust methods of financial assistance to a specific company, to know how to develop promotions, new markets, new products, and to improve productivity. Since these proposals provide different points of view for the entrepreneurs/beneficiaries, the companies involved are able to formulate even better business strategies. How much are similar such initiatives helping to bringing Japanese companies and businesses from the Western Balkan closer together? - After receiving mentoring services, the beneficiaries reported a positive impact on their businesses, such as new business opportunities and access to new markets. I will provide two examples of beneficiaries who got new business partners who
