EU-Western Balkans Cluster Policy Learning and Matchmaking Event took place on November 22 and November 23, 2018 in Zagreb, Croatia and was organised by PwC in close collaboration with the European Cluster Collaboration Platform.
The EU-Western Balkans cluster policy and matchmaking event is set up to support clusters as networking support organisations especially for SMEs, in their mission to open up new markets, to collaborate on cross-sectoral level and provide first relevant contacts to their members. The event represents a unique opportunity for European and Western Balkan clusters to explore common areas of interest for cooperation and build complementarities in terms of sectoral, value chain and market focus.
The event took place in the Technology Park Zagreb, home to Startup Factory Zagreb and a modern 7,300 m2 thriving space for start-ups, with more than 100 modular office spaces, co-working spaces and labs.
As part of an approach aimed at promoting international cluster cooperation for the benefit of SMEs, the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs of the European Commission (DG GROW) is supporting international, cross-regional and cross-sectorial cluster cooperation through the European Cluster Collaboration Platform, including by organising specific cluster matchmaking events. These activities are carried out to support efforts of cluster organisations in developing partnerships and business cooperation in European and global markets, for the benefit of their members. The current activities are funded under the EU COSME Programme.
The European Cluster Collaboration Platform provides a visible framework for cluster collaboration and for subsequent events. The ECCP is the cornerstone of the European strategy in support of SME internationalisation through clusters. It provides a wide range of information and services to facilitate the interaction between clusters, not only within Europe but also with international partners.
One of the speakers at the event was Dr Zoran Aralica, project coordinator of the SmartEIZ project who gave a presentation on the Development of Competitiveness Clusters in Croatia: survey-based Analysis, which he conducted together with colleagues from the Institute of Economics, Zagreb and Bocconi University from Milan.
For more information on the event please go to: https://wbc-rti.info/object/event/17654 .
To check the agenda of the event please click here.
