Regional meeting on innovation strategy for smart specialization of the Republic of Bulgaria 2014-2020 (IS3) in Plovdiv Regional Administration

On 5th June 2019 a regional meeting was held in Regional Administration - Plovdiv in connection with the implementation of the Action Plan on Innovative Strategy for Intelligent Specialization 2014-2020 for 2019. The meeting was attended by 45 persons - representatives of regional and local authorities, non-profit organizations, universities and businesses.

The Ministry of Economy, the Economic Policy Directorate, together with representatives from General Directorate "European Funds for Competitiveness", The Bulgarian Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Agency, Science and Education for Smart Growth Operational Programme, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Education and Science, Central Coordination Unit at Council of Ministers and Regional Administration - Plovdiv organized the Regional Forum with a view to presenting and discussing the progress of the Strategy and the need to update it, to seek the views of stakeholders, particularly the business, on the difficulties encountered in the implementation of innovative RIS projects, the changes in the priority areas for smart specialization of the South Central Region of Bulgaria and proposals for new support measures in the priority "Mechatronics and Clean Technologies".


During the Forum, Velizar Petrov, Executive director of Regional Development Agency with Business Support Centre for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises - Plovdiv and Alexander Tonkov, Member of the Board of Directors of RDA BSC SMEs introduced Mr. Zhelyaz Enev, Director “Economic Policy at the Ministry of Economy and Mr. Vladimir Minev from Bulgarian Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Agency, with a preliminary conception of the Bulgarian Action Plan on succession and business transfer. The Action Plan of the Bulgarian Partner is a document that provides details on how the lessons learned from STOB Regions will be used to improve the policy tool "National SME Strategy 2014-2020".

Based on the best practices of the partners were defined three main focuses of the initial conception of Bulgarian action plan for succession and transfer of business:
•    ACTION 1 Local network for owner-managers (successors);
•    ACTION 2 Regional platform for business transfers;
•    ACTION 3 Financial instruments / mentoring schemes / certification of consultants

The preliminary concept for Bulgarian action plan for succession and transfer of business will be presented for discussion at the next meeting of the Council for Regional Development of Central South Region of Bulgaria on 25.06.2019.

For more information:
032/902 399
Aleksandar Tonkov,
Communication manager of STOB regions project