The Kick Off meeting took place in Reggio Emilia on 21st and 23rd June 2016: it represented the official start of the project, partners had the opportunity to meet for the first time and set all the work to be developed in the coming 5 years.
COMPETE IN-project, co-funded by the INTERREG EUROPE Programme, is aimed at strengthening local policies to support internationalization of PMIs through the construction of paths that involve the whole territorial system: not only enterprises, but also public authorities, universities, centers for Research and Innovation , professional associations and cultural actors and other relevant stakeholders all involved in the internalization process. Started on April 1st, 2016 and ending on March 31st, 2021 (5 years), COMPETE IN is based on a new way of approaching internationalization, leveraging on institutional international relations and wealth of exchanges that cities and regions already have.
An Opening Interregional Seminar was joined to the meeting on 22nd June, to offer some interesting experiences to start project exchange of experiences, with the participation of relevant organizations such as United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), European Commission – Directorate – General for International Cooperation and Development – Private Framework Development,Trade, Regional Integration, China Consulate in Italy, EURADA – The European Association Of Development Agencies, the European House Ambrosetti, Modena and Reggio Emilia University, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Unicredit International Centre Italy and other local case studies from Valencia and Reggio Emilia.
Since the beginning of the project, ach partner started to implement activities both at transnational and local level, and launched their local stakeholder groups, that will support them in the implementation of activities and in the development of a local action plans. In the coming months, the project will focus on the identification of good practices to be shared with project partners and the development of a useful tool to map the international dimension of the territories and their actors.
