The EU-funded project "Support to the development of small family businesses in the Sheki-Zagatala economic zone through Balakan ABAD regional centre" which is being implemented by UNDP Azerbaijan is on track.  The delegation of ABAD and the United Nations Development Program Office in Azerbaijan visited Croatia on September 24 - October 1, 2019, as part of the project.

Within the framework of the visit, the delegation familiarized with Croatia's experience in small entrepreneurship run by families. The delegation held productive meetings with Croatian SMEs, Innovation and Investment Agency, Chamber of Commerce and Arts. They also met with entrepreneurs of the food, wine and crafts industry in Zagreb, Zrno, Medyimurye, Samobor and Rijeka to get acquainted with the state of small business. 

Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Croatia Fakhraddin Gurbanov also attended the meeting of the joint team of the UNDP and ABAD with the Chamber of Commerce and Arts of Croatia and expressed his assuredness that the visit would contribute to the rapidly developing relations between these two countries.

The project document "Support for the development of small family businesses in the Sheki-Zagatala economic zone through Balakan ABAD regional centre" was signed on December 13, 2017, between the State Agency for Public Service and Social Innovations under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the United Nations Development Program. The goal of the project is to involve 44 families from the Sheki-Zagatala economic zone to the entrepreneurship program. The project will continue until 2020.