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GROWTHCLUSTERS - NEWS 2010
June 2010
Busy month on the Clusters front
Whilst we host the ABC meeting in the Varna office on Friday 11th June, we also are working on the Application for South East Europe Operational Programme. Out of 600 Applications on the 2nd Call the Association of Business Clusters for Bulgaria/Pole Office Hungary application is in the top 60. We hope to support the lead partners to develop 6 to 10 World Class Clusters across the Balkans – in line with the ambitions of the EU Competitiveness and Innovation Programme. More details in further news items.
May 2010
New office in Varna
Growthclusters BG opens a new office in Varna – the biggest city on the Bulgarian seaside. It is in the centre of the city, behind Varna Cathedral. You can find the office on the following address: 78, Dr. Piskyuliev str., fl. 2, Varna 9000.
April 2010
Turkey consultancy
Currently Growthclusters are working on two projects in Ankara with Europ-Aid/Turkish Chamber of Commerce/Ministry of Economy expansion of ABiGEM to create 6 more Business Centres and 12 Clusters. We are writing a Cluster Development Handbook and then in May will be using GEM+ to analyse the 12 Business Clusters they have formed.
March 2010
Go Kaman, Go!
Our Projects Team Yanina Hristova and Elena Spasova have just returned from a trip to Kaman, Turkey (middle Anatoliya) to strengthen our partnership with the Municipality of Kaman and the local Association of Walnut Farmers, who will be putting in a proposal for cross-border cooperation project between Turkey and Bulgaria. Come back soon for more information on project details!
Fishing Exercise
The Growthclusters Team will train Executive Agency for Forestry senior officials to work with the updates Strategic documents and create their own Regional Strategic Plans. Our main goal is not to give them fish, but to teach them how to fish themselves. This is the only way to achieve sustainability in business planning for the new structure of the Executive Agency.
February 2010
Growthclusters BG has set up some of the membership procedures for the Bulgarian Association of Business Clusters. Associate Membership is open to all at 500 BGN per year (Full membership only for certified BG Clusters). We are still waiting for a start date for the Cross Border Cluster Project between Bulgaria and Romania. But we have completed the Preliminary Assessment Report!
January 2010
New Year, New Look
After throwing a Christmas Party at Kohinoor Indian Restaurant off Hristo Botev Blvd, our team started the New Year 2010 full of enthusiasm and excitement about Growthclusters’ new projects. In January Yanina Hristova and Elena Spasova (borrowed from Ligna Group) were in the full swing of carrying out research about the state of the art of social enterprise in Bulgaria as part of the implementation of ISEDE-NET Project, funded by South East Europe Operational Programme. They have developed a database of most social enterprises in Bulgaria and have interviewed them about the barriers and opportunities they face, their business needs and relationship with public authorities and stakeholders. The Analysis of Social Entrepreneurship and the Social Enterprise Report will be presented to Minister Valintina Simeonova (Ministry of Labour and Social Policy), who has shown interest and support for the project activities.
John Murray attended Clusters Conference in Budapest, Hungary about Excellence in Clusters. Link to proceedings is here: www.polusprogram.eu/hu/clusters_in_europe/
Met lots of old friends and colleagues plus cementing some of the projected South East Europe partners.