Good practice:

PROSME – increase the competitiveness of SMEs

As indicated by the Regional Competitiveness Report 2016 (RCI-2016), the RO3 macro-region follows the pattern observed in the less developed Central and Eastern Europe countries, where the country’s capital is the most performing, while the neighbouring regions are less competitive, and the multiplier effects do not manifest.
In terms of the number of enterprises, the RO3 Macro-Region is ranked first on a national level with 9909 companies, representing 34.4% of the county’s total. The obstacles encountered by companies in the RO3 macro-region are:
 lack of internal funding for innovation;
 high market competition;
 lack of credit or private equity dedicated to supporting innovation;
 incomplete harmonization of Romania’s legislation and regulations with the EU
The PROSME project - Promoting SMEs in Romania through the Enterprise Europe Network - was funded under the Program for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and SMEs (COSME). The Consortium was made of 11 partners representing public organisations, regional development agencies, science and business organisations. The project objectives:
-promoting measures to increase Romanian SMEs (including Transport-related SMEs) competitiveness, by supporting their efforts to access internal and international markets;
-development of internationally competitive SMEs (including Transport-related SMEs) in the region, by helping them to realize their innovation potential and to increase their innovation capacities;

Topic: Enterprise Europe Network
Total budget: 512.285 EURO; EU Contribution: 307.371 EURO
Call ID: COS-EEN-SGA3-2018-2-01

Live and online business meetings and events as well as international trade fairs were organised for industrial companies, including transport related businesses. Financing for transport related companies was also secured in the fields of robotics and circular economy. PROSME provided a wide range of services to support business development and R&D and especially for internationalization.

This Good Practice has a potential to be interesting for other regions, as it shows how challenges of SMEs, including investments and funds, time, human resources and creativity could be enhanced in order to create or maintain competitiveness in the value chains. Transferable practices for other regions include:
- Access and membership of the EEN offering SMEs free business and innovation support services.
- Coordination of services providing a platform to develop new programs for supporting the SMEs.
- The strong commitment to collaboration and a joined up offer from regional and national stakeholders involved.