Half the population of Serbia would be willing to invest in real estate but just 10 percent would invest in innovations, the second annual StarTech poll said.

The poll also showed that 46 percent of entrepreneurs would not invest in startups but do think investments into domestic innovators are profitable. A comparison with last year’s results showed that the number of people willing to support innovative products and companies is higher.

A senior official of the National Association for Local Economic Development (NALED) said that access to financing for innovations, especially for small and medium companies, has to be made easier. “NALED supports that goal through StarTech which will be used to allocate 3 million Dollars in grants for 100 innovative businesses,” the organization’s competitiveness and investments director Dusan Vasiljevic told a news conference.

According to the data presented at the news conference, 54 percent of innovators modified existing products, 31 percent copied existing innovations and 10 percent came up with new products. Almost two thirds developed their products on their own, about a third worked with other companies and just five percent worked with universities and scientists.

The poll showed that less than 5 percent registered a patent or copyrighted designs.

The news conference was told that 41.5 percent of the polled said that access to finances is the biggest problem they face. About 80 percent used their own money and the others used loans, subsidies and grants to develop their products.