NASMB - National Association of Small and Medium Business

  • Country
    Bulgaria
  • Website
    http://www.nasmb-bg.org
  • Address
    1124 Sofia, 15-A Tsarigradsko shose Str., 3-rd, floor, app.6
  • Email
    nasmb@abv.bg

The National Association of Small and Medium Business (NASMB) is established in 2000 and is one of the working Bulgarian employer’s organizations active in the fields of innovation and knowledge economy. Our mission is purposeful participation in the formation of a knowledge-based society in Europe, with a particular emphasis on the countries of Southeast Europe and Bulgaria, in order to support and foster the establishment of a favorable business environment for small and medium businesses development and to raise SMEs competitiveness. Its activities encourage the growth of the economies in the region through the promotion of innovation and transfer of advanced technologies and know-how.

NASMB facilitates this process by participating in the cross-border cooperation, networking and capacity building of NGOs, public and private agencies, and companies through elaboration and implementation of various local and international projects. Among others NASMB specializes in two main thematic areas that constitute important pillars of a knowledge society: Information Society, and Innovation and Technology Transfer. In both fields NASMB is engaged in applied research and analyses, public policy support and advocacy, capacity building, training, and knowledge and innovation brokerage.

In 2002 NASMB became a Member of the Council for Euro communication to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Through the functions of its Chairperson for several years NASMB was represented in the Credit Council of the Encouragement Bank in Bulgaria and from 2007 to 2009 the Association was a member of the Social Council to the Deputy Prime Minister of Bulgaria. Now NASMB is a member of the Monitoring Committee of the Programme for Development of Rural Regions 2007 – 2013, and its leader – Mrs. Eleonora Negulova, is the Chairperson of the Working Group on Priority Axes 3 – “Improvement of the quality of life in the rural regions” and is a member of the Working Group on Priority Axes 4 – “LEADER” at Ministry of Agriculture. NASMB has participated in the elaboration and implementation of many local and international projects. It pioneered the development of a guarantee fund by participating in the international project GO NETWORK – Guarantee Organizations Network under the INTERREG III B CADSES programme. In the international project REVITA – Development of Small and Medium-size Railway Stations into Multipurpose Local Service Centers under the same programme, a lot of research about the usability and development of this kind of stations was done. The third international project in this row was RIMADIMA –Risk-, Disaster-Management & prevention of natural hazards in mountainous and / or forested regions, where a new decision support system was developed. Another international project of this type was TELMI – International European integration on the labor market through information technologies.

Role in the project of the LP

The Lead Partner shall assume the following responsibilities:

- it signs and submits the Application Form on behalf of the partnership;

- signs the Subsidy Contract with the Managing Authority for the total ERDF & IPA amount of the approved project;

- down the arrangements for its relations with the Project Partners participating in the project in an agreement -( Partnership Agreement of PIM) - comprising, inter alia, provisions guaranteeing the sound financial management of the funds allocated to the project, including the arrangements for recovering amounts unduly paid;

- it shall be responsible for communication and division of tasks between the partners and it shall ensure that these tasks are correctly fulfilled in compliance with the Partnership Agreement and with the Subsidy Contract/ approved Application Form and its revisions;

- it shall be responsible for ensuring the implementation of the entire project and support the other Project Partners in carrying out the overall project implementation in accordance with the Programme documents and the pertinent EU regulations;

- it shall ensure an efficient internal management and coordination (incl. administrative and financial management);

-  it shall ensure an efficient control system and that all ERDF & IPA partners respect and observe EU and national legislation concerning financial management and controls (audit), public procurement and information and publicity;

-  it shall be responsible of the content of the Project Progress Report; it shall ensure that the partnership transmits the Partner Progress Reports timely and correctly in order to respect deadlines fixed in the Subsidy Contract;

-  it shall ensure that the expenditure presented by all Partners participating in the project has been incurred for the purpose of implementing the project and corresponds to the activities agreed between all the Partners participating in the project;

- it shall verify that the expenditure presented by all Partners participating in the project has been validated by the controllers;

The LP strictly fulfills his obligations following the PIM and sticking to the AF of the project

Organizational actvities

LP appointed 2 persons for communication manager /CM/ with tasks well established in the contract. PP2, PP3, PP4, PP6, also have CMs as team member. In all documents, a standard logo BMP and project acronym is used. Posters and a plaque have been placed at PPs premises. Information on the project & events has been published at PPs websites. 4 broadcasts for dissemination of project goals were broadcasted by Radio Gama in BG. There are at disposal with LP documents with information concerning publications, presentations, other visualisation evidences of publicity and photographs from the events. Оn 3.10.17 in Sofia, BG was the Kick-off meeting of the project. 28 representatives of all PPs attended this meeting for updating activity plan, risks, progressing, challenges, and monitoring for day-to-day management and coordination of project consortium. Special attention was paid on financial issues, road map of activities, time-line and reporting. Steering Committee has been established. Project information materials were distributed at all project events. Newsletter for Sofia Opening conference on 7.12.2017 /29 participants/ and workshop /42 participants/ has been distributed to the interested parties. There are 2 publications in Business club magazine /for the Kick-off meeting and Sofia Opening conference/. PPs contracted the external services for elaboration of information and other materials to be visualized as per BMP regulations.

Contacts for Lead Partner:

National Association of Small and Medium Business, 1124 Sofia, 15-A Tsarigradsko shose Str., 3-rd, floor, app.6

Project team