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Clusters international promotion
Published on 22 October 2018
Italy
Emilia-Romagna
This is the good practice's implementation level. It can be national, regional or local.
About this good practice
Calls have been lauched in 2017 and in 2018
Projects must allow a cluster of SMEs to be led by specialized services towards 1, max 2 foreign markets. The promoter must target a specific production sector and 1/2 countries with a high development potential for that specific sector. The promoter select the cluster companies, find specialized consultants and build/organize/carry out a series of promotional events through which SMEs can approach the new market. During the selection of the projects, the Emilia-Romagna Region gives priority to non-EU markets or to pre decided markets
Eligible promoters can be: entrepreneurial associations, Chambers of Commerce of Emilia-Romagna and the regional level Unioncamere, Italian Chambers of Commerce in the destination countries, Foundations
Eligible activities The project must be aimed at developing initiatives directed to promotion, commercial and industrial penetration. The project has to foresee a well-structured and finalized set of actions of entrepreneurial and institutional relationships
Eligible costs -expenditures for services and external evaluations of consultancy assistance to the participating SMEs of Emilia-Romagna and for the organization of institutional and/or business meetings, partner searching and missions abroad;
- expenditures for goods, services for the realization of company visits, seminars, workshops, conferences, foreign operators incoming, other promotional events
Regional contribution: 50%, max 80.000€
Projects must allow a cluster of SMEs to be led by specialized services towards 1, max 2 foreign markets. The promoter must target a specific production sector and 1/2 countries with a high development potential for that specific sector. The promoter select the cluster companies, find specialized consultants and build/organize/carry out a series of promotional events through which SMEs can approach the new market. During the selection of the projects, the Emilia-Romagna Region gives priority to non-EU markets or to pre decided markets
Eligible promoters can be: entrepreneurial associations, Chambers of Commerce of Emilia-Romagna and the regional level Unioncamere, Italian Chambers of Commerce in the destination countries, Foundations
Eligible activities The project must be aimed at developing initiatives directed to promotion, commercial and industrial penetration. The project has to foresee a well-structured and finalized set of actions of entrepreneurial and institutional relationships
Eligible costs -expenditures for services and external evaluations of consultancy assistance to the participating SMEs of Emilia-Romagna and for the organization of institutional and/or business meetings, partner searching and missions abroad;
- expenditures for goods, services for the realization of company visits, seminars, workshops, conferences, foreign operators incoming, other promotional events
Regional contribution: 50%, max 80.000€
Expert opinion
This good practice from Italy presents a clever way of mobilizing private financial resources with the help of public funding that is offered to clusters for the benefit of local SMEs. Namely, business associations and chambers of commerce in the region of Emilia-Romagna have the opportunity to get funded for putting together clusters of SMEs in specific sectors and targeting 1-2 foreign markets with high development potential for the local companies. A series of promotional events is then organized to support the cluster members’ internationalization ambitions. Calls for proposals from 2017 and 2018 indicate the attractiveness of such schemes with hundreds of SMEs benefitting from the clustering activities. Besides national support, even higher investments are leveraged by the beneficiary companies themselves. As such, the good practice might have high replication value and potential for other contexts as well, inspiring policy-makers to develop similar programs. As highlighted by the practice itself, though, close attention has to be paid to monitoring some KPIs that would later help to evaluate the performance of such schemes and their actual impact on SME competitiveness.
Works at
Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform
Resources needed
On average, yearly calls are endowed with 1,5 million Euro and 3 staff are in charge of managing the measure.
Funds are from Emilia-Romagna Region
Funds are from Emilia-Romagna Region
Evidence of success
The annual regional contribution is 1,5 M € leveraging an average additional investment by the beneficiary companies/promoters of 2 M €
Cooperation between Regional Government and stakeholders allows to concentrate promotional efforts and avoid overlapping, potentially benefitting also from resources available at national level by the National Trade Agency
SMEs benefit assistance & support for entering foreign markets at a reduced cost
2017, 21 projects, 200 SMEs-2018, 16 projects, 170 SMEs
Cooperation between Regional Government and stakeholders allows to concentrate promotional efforts and avoid overlapping, potentially benefitting also from resources available at national level by the National Trade Agency
SMEs benefit assistance & support for entering foreign markets at a reduced cost
2017, 21 projects, 200 SMEs-2018, 16 projects, 170 SMEs
Potential for learning or transfer
a. With a relatively limited amount of financial resources it is possible to leverage and combine private financial resources for the benefit of a wide number of SMEs;
b. Collective promotional and market scouting actions reduce the investments needed by single SMEs and the risks involved in accessing foreign markets;
c. The measure’s success heavily depends on the experience, capacity and market knowledge and expertise of business support actors
b. Collective promotional and market scouting actions reduce the investments needed by single SMEs and the risks involved in accessing foreign markets;
c. The measure’s success heavily depends on the experience, capacity and market knowledge and expertise of business support actors
Further information
Website
Good practice owner
You can contact the good practice owner below for more detailed information.
Organisation
Emilia-Romagna Region
Italy
Emilia-Romagna
Contact
Project Assistant