Technical Assistance for Empowering SMEs for Networking and Inter-regional Cooperation

The overall objective of this first large scale “Networking” project for SMEs in Turkey is to improve the competitiveness of the enterprises in the RCOP Region in international markets. Its specific objective is to improve networking and cooperation between the RCOP and non-RCOP regions through developing and piloting cluster-based inter and intra-regional networking and cooperation strategies. The project covers 5 target provinces including Trabzon, Corum, Samsun, Kahramanmaraş and Gaziantep with a budget of 3.5 million Euros; and it mainly focuses on indicative sectors that will be defined through economical analyses of the target provinces. Key activities of the project are grouped into two components:

 Component 1:

• Development of inter-regional and intra-regional cooperation and networking strategies,
• Design and execution of at least 5 intra and inter regional pilot actions,
• Development of cluster tools to be used by regional actors to develop clusters in practice.

 Component 2:

• Establishment of an online Knowledge Management System (KMS),
• Development of a National Benchmarking System (BMS),
• Establishment of and technical assistance to five Cluster Info Spots (CIS).

 By the end of the project, the following results are expected to be achieved:

•  Productivity and added value of the enterprises and business representative organisations are enhanced through horizontal and vertical cooperation among the firms & organisations, and through establishment of cooperation and networks among public and private institutions, universities, NGOs and Unions serving SMEs.
• Local clusters and SMEs are provided with state of art support through improved access to specialized systems and services, which will improve their networking capacities.