From the official beginning of our cooperation - February 2016 - we partners worked on the frames of our future work. Work methodology was set up, team building activities took place, roles and responsibilities were defined. And the involvement of the affected actors in each region has been started.
The core activity of our UpGradeSME project is to improve those regional and national supporting schemes – in ‘Interreg Europe’ terminology the so called policy instruments which have directly supported SMEs in their internationalization activities - how to go abroad - and hopefully will support it in the future as well.
To realize notable improvements in these supporting schemes we have to involve actively those regional actors who have direct power in changing the structure of these programs. We have to invite them to the international learning process and have to share with them all learnings and on the same time we have to receive their proposals and ideas.
This activity started with our first interregional meeting in Budapest and goes on continuously.
What could we achieve in the 1st semester? We can state that the involvement of stakeholders was ensured in all regions but the form and the level of the involvement of the regional and national actors varied from country to country.
In Hungary and Romania the project partners PBN and the South-Muntenia Regional Development Agency invited the relevant Ministries by organizing short meetings, where the participants – relevant departments of the Ministries and local Municipality – were informed about projects goals. The ministry level was essential as the Hungarian and Romanian policy instruments work on national level. In Hungary besides PBN the Ministry for National Economy works actively in the project as a project partner which provides a strong professional background.
In Romania also SMRDA started to inform its stakeholders about UpGradeSME project. Two representatives of Romanian Managing Authority - Ministry for Regional Development and Public Administration – participated our 1st interregional meeting. They have been deeply involved in the learning process. SMRDA organized its 1st local stakeholder event in September with the participation of 4 chambers, and employer organization and the representatives of the Export Council.
In Spain, Portugal, Germany and the Netherlands the policy instruments have a regional geographical coverage.
In the Netherlands the Managing Authority - Municipality of Leeuwarden - is core project partner together with Business Development Friesland. They together involved several stakeholders - also SMES active in water sector - through bilateral meetings, amongst others the Province of Friesland, who is the co-creator of the own policy instrument. The stakeholders showed high level of commitment, all stakeholders could be approached easily.
In Germany Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum organized its 1st Local Stakeholder Event as a back to back meeting with the Joint Governmental Commission between Germany and Romania. The participants of this Commission showed a multi-disciplinary background as they were representing universities, SMEs, public authorities and local and international ministries.
Fomento San Sebastián in Spain informed the regional actors about the objectives and activities of the UPGRADESME project, as well as about the local instruments that are dealing with Internationalisation in the city of San Sebastian. This event helped Fomento San Sebastian identify the needs local SMEs have in terms of Internationalization, in order to select policy instruments and adapt them better to SMEs needs.
In Portugal our Partner ADRAVE organized a group meeting and two individual meetings with relevant actors like local municipalities, universities, Food, Textile and Metallurgical organizations. The Managing Authority - North of Portugal - has cooperated actively in the learning process and participated the local stakeholder meeting.
