A programme helping businesses in Croatia find their feet after years of war and economic turmoil is being run by Durham Business School (Dubs).

Using knowledge built up while working with North-East companies, the university's Biz-KIT project has won a contract to provide a package to boost the skills of business owners and managers in the troubled region of the former Yugoslavia.

Dubs believes it can help Croatian entrepreneurs run their companies better and help turn the economy around.

Initiatives are also being launched to give some of Croatia's many unemployed graduates the skills to join a business, as well as training some of the country's business advisors who can pass their knowledge on to the companies with which they work.

The £75,000 contract involves Dubs team members led by Dean Maragh setting up a localised version of Biz-KIT in conjunction with the Centre for Entrepreneurship at the JJ Strossmeyer University, in the town of Osijek.

Mr Maragh said: "The year-long project will act as a major pilot scheme to demonstrate just how much help outside experts can offer to Croatian companies, both in terms of their information technology needs and general business culture and skills.

"Biz-KIT was an ideal partner for them because in many ways, the problems we have helped small to medium enterprises in the North-East to deal with are similar to Croatia's.

"Over the past 20 or so years, we have both seen the demise of major industries - in our case mining, in their case textiles, leather and furniture. Both regions have above-average unemployment and in each area major companies have either collapsed or moved their operations elsewhere.

"In many ways, we will be introducing Croatian owners and managers to the very idea of business - what an enterprise culture involves and how to mould that into the general economic environment. It is a daunting, but very exciting, prospect."