ESSPO Partners continue to work on improving effectiveness of SME’s support. To know the basics and the roots of previous failures on that field, Partners began with peer reviews with institutions and stakeholders responsible or involved in regional SME support.
ESSPO project partner: Vaido Mikheim from Tartu Science Park (Estonia) was involved in peer review meetings organised 19 and 20 October in Poznań – capital of Wielkopolska region (Poland). He interviewed representatives of the Marshal's Office (regional authorities responsible for programming and implementation of SME support policy - mainly Regional Operational Programme), WARP (Wielkopolska Agency for Enterprise Development Ltd), representatives of the regional business support organisations and entrepreneurs in order to provide Polish partners with feedback and recommendations on instruments aiming to support SMEs in the region. In his view Wielkopolska has great potential for development and changing the current economy structure into more competitive: there are educated people, active companies and support instruments. Still improvements are necessary in the area of communication between policymakers and companies as well as strengthening collaboration among various elements of the SME support system.
ESSPO is Interreg Europes Programm’s project, designed to deliver specific solutions which will improve support services portfolios for Small and Medium Enterprises sector in European regions. It focuses on the effectiveness of SME innovation support and answers the sector needs with comprehensive Action Plans capable of visibly impacting the regional economies.
ESSPO main objective is to improve the regional policies directed to SMEs competitiveness and engagement in innovation. This aim will be achieved through interregional learning process engaging the partners and the stakeholders from their territories. This means working directly with policy and decision makers on regional, national and international levels, intermediaries providing support services and single companies.
ESSPO addresses the issue of insufficient impact and efficiency of policies aiming to enhance SMEs competiveness, especially their growth on national and international markets as well as their engagement in innovation processes.
ESSPO takes a longterm aim (1 April 2016-31 March 2021) and will work on specific improvements of SME policy instruments in 8 different territories on national, regional, subregional and local level.
See also: https://www.facebook.com/ESSPOproject
