South Great Plain Regional Development Agency /SGPRDA/ Mr. Antal Ördögh Project manager Szeged, 16th of April 2007

SGPRDA - About the Agency I. - The Agency has been founded in 1997 is the labour organisation of the Council is cooperating in the management of operative regional tasks is cooperating in the management of regional funded and Structural Fund based tender procedure

SGPRDA - About the Agency II. - Activities Development of the human and economic resources, as well as the environmental state of the South Great Plain with the synthesis of the regional development tasks Promoting the cooperation between the actors interested in regional development, while finding the common interests and tasks Learning the European best practices in regional development, with special emphasis on the wide use of the regional development policies Concentrating more significant national and European resources on regional development, raising the territorial effectiveness of the investments With the promotion of the cross border cooperations accelerating the regional development With the support of the cooperation of the three component counties (Bács-Kiskun, Csongrád and Békés), harmonising, and promoting the regional development policies. With the help of our project organising role, supporting the organisations actively participating in regional economic development (Chambers, Enterprise Promotion Foundations, ITDH etc.) Organising and coordinating regional marketing activities in order to influence the regional recognition and image.

SGPRDA - INTERREG experiences - Running projects: TOWER RFO – INTERREG III C AFP sub-project of TOWER – INTERREG III C INNOCOOPESS – INTERREG III A Future projects: RELOAD – INTERREG III A CANIDEKT – INTERREG III A TOWER II – INTERREG IV (?)

TOWER - Towards Sustainable Excellence by Innovating Regions - The main goal of this regional framework operation involving five European regions is to bring together innovative actions and tools which have already been tested on a national level and let these be tested in a European context. By these actions it supports sustainability of economic growth in regions, technology transfer to SMEs, setting up competitive and knowledge-based entrepreneurship in the regions. INTERREG IIIC project Partners: Östra Mellansverige (Sweden), North West England (UK), Gelderland (the Netherlands), Rhone-Alpes (France) Main activities: regional coordination, managing sub-projects, conferences, seminars, meetings, preparation of website, brochures

AFP - Analysis, Forecasting, Planning - This is one of twelve sub-projects running in the frame of TOWER RFO. The sub- project has all the five regions of TOWER as partners. The sub-project follows the whole process of regional planning in the five regions. The overall goal of it is to collect and compare best practices of partner regions in regional visioning, planning and implementation. Partners: Östra Mellansverige (Sweden), North West England (UK), Gelderland (the Netherlands), Rhone-Alpes (France) Main activities: seminars, conferences, surveys, collection of best practices, making a best-practice guide

INNOCOOPESS - Innovative cross-border cooperation in economy – Subotica- Szeged - Supporting SMEs of the two border-regions and facilitating cross-border business connections (South Great Plain and Backa) through cross-border cooperation. Organising mutual business trips, educational programmes, facilitate economic cooperation between institutions of two neighbour countries. INTERREG III A project Partners: Regional Center for the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises and Entrepreneurship - Subotica, LLC Subotica, Main activities: study tours, partnership building meetings, trainings

Future projects

RELOAD - Regional Elements in Logistics Opportunities – Assessment and Development - Within the framework of the project the cooperation of the South Great Plain Region and Vojvodina Region is carried out in the field of logistics. The activities of the project are aiming at familiarizing with and harmonizing of the logisitics concept of the two regions. The cooperating experts will be harmonizing the two regions logistics concept by preparing a joint logistics strategy. INTERREG IIIA project Partners: Open University LLc Subotica; Regional Center for the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises and Entrepreneurship - Subotica, LLC Subotica; Regional Agency for the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises ALMA MONS, Ltd. Novi Sad; Provincial Secretary of Economy Main activities: seminars, conferences, surveys, study trips

CANIDEKT - Crossborder Agencies Network for Innovative Development and Knowledge Transfer - The proposed action is aimed at strengthening the business and innovation support infrastructure and business co-operation through the establishment of two Innovation Agencies. This will contribute to the improvement of cross-border co-operation of innovative businesses and the development of a cross-border Innovation Support Network with the Hungarian partners DARFT and consortium BIOPOLIS. RCSMEED Subotica intends to establish an Innovation Agency and form a network of innovation support organisations in Vojvodina that will link together with the Hungarian cross-border innovation consortium. INTERREG IIIA project Partners: Regional Center for the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises and Entrepreneurship - Subotica, LLC Subotica, Regional Agency for the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises ALMA MONS, Ltd. Novi Sad, Faculty of Technical Sciences- Novi Sad Main activities: seminars, conferences, surveys, trainings, advising

TOWER II - the new TOWER - Existing partnership All partners are involved and interested Main topics: innovation, regional economy development, supporting technology transfer, SME development In the framework of INTERREG IV (?)

Thank you for your kind attention! Mr. Antal Ördögh South Great Plain Regional Development Agency 6720 Szeged, Oroszlán u. 2. Tel: Fax: Website: