National Team for GEM Macedonia

The Macedonian Enterprise Development Foundation (MEDF) and the Business Start-Up Center at the Mechanical Faculty in Skopje (BSC), on December 29th 2009 promoted the report “Entrepreneurship in Macedonia”, within the largest survey on entrepreneurship in the world – Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). The survey revealed that in Macedonia, in general, there are positive perceptions on entrepreneurship. 80% consider entrepreneurship to be a good carrier choice and 66% that the media provide appropriate attention to entrepreneurship. However, 35% from the surveyed consider that the fear of failure would prevent them from starting business whereas 40% would undertake business activities in the next 3 years. Macedonia has the highest entrepreneurial activity from the European countries in which GEM was conducted, measured through the key index TEA (Total Early-Stage Entrepreneurial Activity). The TEA Index for Macedonia is 14.5%. It means that roughly 14.5% from the surveyed at age from 18 to 64 are new entrepreneurs. Half of them are nascent entrepreneurs (business activities up to 3 months) and half are new entrepreneurs (business activities up to 3.5 years). For half of the entrepreneurs in Macedonia entrepreneurship is necessity whereas for other half is opportunity. In Macedonia the typical entrepreneur is male, at age from 25 to 34, with higher educational level and higher income. Although these are traits globally, still it is worth mentioning that the gap between male and female entrepreneurs in Macedonia is still higher compared to the countries in the region. On the other hand, the youngest population (18-24) has significantly higher aptitude towards entrepreneurship, compared with the countries in the region.