THE FIRST CLUSTER-BASED CBC PROGRAMME CZECH-SERBIA STARTS

With great pleasure and proud I would like to inform you that we received the official confirmation by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIT) of the Czech Republic on the award of the contract for the project of “The Importance of Clusters for the Trade and SMEs Development “ within the Aid for Trade programme – Serbia. 

This is a proof that the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Czech National Cluster Association and the Serbian Cluster House, in September 2, 2015 in Novi Sad within the accompanying business mission of the Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka in Serbia, supported by the national chambers of economy, began to carry out its aim to boost the competitiveness edge of both countries through clusters.

Project duration is from the 1st of June to 25th of November, 2016.

The center of project coordination for Serbia is in Nis in the Cluster House, and for the Czech Republic is in Ostrava in the Czech National Clusters Association.

 The mission of the project is to encourage cross-border cooperation between small and medium-sized enterprises - members of the export-oriented clusters through trade cooperation, joint ventures and investments, exchange of knowledge, transfer of know-how and access to new markets.

 The key project activities are:

 Mapping of export-oriented clusters and SMEs in the CZ and RS

• Interactive web platform/forum for direct business cooperation between the CZ and RS
• Organization of the Czech-Serbian Cluster Forum in RS (September 2016) and CZ (October 2016) including “Cluster learning Trip” to Prague and Nis/Kursumlija for 14 selected export-oriented SMEs on the both sides of borders
• Creation of case studies of the successful internationalization of SMEs in clusters in CZ and RS
• Preparation of internationalization strategies of two clusters in CZ and RS

Since this is the first project between the Czech Republic and Serbia which uses clusters as a tool to support cluster-based economic development by encouraging cross-border business connections between our countries, we believe that the successful implementation of our project will contribute to further improvement of the traditional friendship and cooperation between the Czech Republic and Serbia. 

Project activities will be published on the websites of the project partners, in the newsletter INFOCLUSTER and followed by supporting institutions of the Balkan and Black Sea Cluster Network – the European Cluster Collaboration Platform and the Global TCI Network in Barcelona. So the project and countries will be visible on the European and global markets. 

I use the opportunity to invite you to join our project if you are interested in developing business on the Czech and Serbian market.