On 9 and 10 April 2018 the BRIDGES project partners Pannon Business Network (PBN), Regional Council of Helsinki-Uusimaa (HURC), Regional Council of Kainuu (RCK) and Kainuun Etu (KE) organised the site visit in Kainuu to the Kantola wood-processing industry cluster and the Woodpolis centre of competence.
The Hungarian delegation (6 members) was represented by the University of Sopron + FALCO Furniture Cluster + PANFA Cluster + PBN.
The purpose of the visit was to gain experiences and better insight in the KANTOLA Good Practice and find transfer and cooperation opportunities. PBN is importing the Kantola GP to support the setup of the advanced furniture-industry centre of competence that is the focus of the action plan.
The participants of the Hungarian delegation stressed following aspects of the good practice as most relevant from their point of view: collaboration, trustfulness and the conscious strategic urban planning and its implementation.
The meeting resulted in defining some examples of cooperation opportunities such as:
- student - teacher exchange programs;
- preparation of common EU projects for the product development of furniture industry and wooden architecture;
- know-how transfer, suggestions for cluster building - how to strengthen the trustfulness between the cluster members in Hungary;
- wood marketing practice in Finland – possible adaptation in Hungary.
The Hungarian stakeholders are very motivated to invite the Finnish stakeholders to West-Hungary to introduce the Hungarian practices.
Kantola is a BRIDGES project good practice, approved and included into the Interreg Europe good practice base, accessible here.
For any questions, clarifications, please contact Ninetta, at [email protected] and/ or +358 44 5514559
