The 4th Stakeholder Meeting in Romania was organised by the Regional Development Agency South-West Oltenia on 6th August 2020 online because of the restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. It was attended by members of the RECREATE Project team as well as representatives of local institutions, SMEs, authorities of the Region.
The meeting started with an update on the project implementation progress since the previous meeting in November 2019, including the Action Plan that the Regional Development Agency South-West Oltenia will develop at the end of phase 1 of the project.
This was followed by a presentation about financing opportunities for SMEs in the transport sector in the South-West Oltenia Region, mainly related to call for projects funded by the ROP (Investment Priority 2.2, Support to setting-up and expanding of advanced production capabilities and development of services) and funding schemes to support digitalisation of SMEs (including Transport SMEs) in the Region.
The need for further development of funding / support schemes in this area for local and regional Transport SMEs was stressed. This has a direct impact on the region's economic growth and a potential for creating new jobs.
The final session was a presentation from one of the RECREATE stakeholders, IPA Craiova SA (an automation and IT company) about their experience in digitization and the support they provide to businesses and the local public administration. Discussions highlighted the fact that thanks to the cooperation between local / regional stakeholders, authorities and SMEs in the transport-related sectors within the Region, there are good opportunities to capitalise on the potential in the field of digitalisation.