1. Maribor Development Agency Euro Info Centre Maribor SI 752

2. Area: 20,253 sq km Capital: Ljubljana Currency Slovenian Tolar - SIT Exchange Rate : · EUR 1 = 239,640SIT Length of coastline: 46.6 km Population: 2 mio Population density: 97 inhabitants per km2 Nationalities: : Slovene 1,727,000; Italian 3,000;Hungarian 8,500; other: 227,500 Language: Slovene; in nationally mixed areas also Italian and Hungarian Country Profile - Slovenia

3. Maribor Development Agency Name: Maribor Development Agency (MDA) Founded: 1993 Founder: Municipality of Maribor Legal status: public organisation Owners: Maribor City Municipality, Municipality Race-Fram, Municipality Starse, Municipality Duplek, Municipality Hoce- Slivnica, Municipality Miklavz na Dravskem polju No. of employees: 18

4. Activities of MDA elaboration of regional development strategy, implementing the proposals of the regional development strategy, promoting a regional approach to tackling the problems of the Podravje region, co-ordinating and providing business advice, especially to growing SMEs and business networks, co-ordination of tourism and rural development projects, acting as a co-ordinator for cross-border projects / EU-region cross-border office

5. Activities of MDA-EIC I. Awareness-Raising Activities Events (seminars, fairs,...) Information Documents Tender Alert Mass Media Mailings Internet Web Sites II. European Services to Companies European Programs and Projects Legal and Fiscal Assistance EU Sources of Financing Business Cooperation Specialist information tools / Databases Other Special Services III. Information on Request IV. Partnerships Regular cooperation in answering questions Joint activities / events General coordination activities V. EIC Network Activity Participation in meetings Organisation of meetings Joint projects Questions posed to the EIC Network VI. Promotional and Public Relations Activities Promotion of EIC and EIC services Participation in DG Enterprise promotional Campaign VII. Management of EICs

6. Range of Activities EIC Maribor is active in the area of internationalisation of SMEs in north-eastern part of Slovenia. EIC is covering 4 regions:  Podravje Region  Pomurje Region  Koroska Region  Savinjska Region Area: 6.930 km2 Number of inhabitants: 770.000 Number of SMEs: 9.300

7. Regional Clusters & Business Networks RAST Regional Avio destination of Slovene Tourism TECES Research and Development centre of Electrical Machines Wooden Constructions Cluster ALUREG Slovenska Bistrica (Aluminium cluster) Energy and Construction Enterprise Network

8. Core branches Construction Metal processing Timber / Wood processing Automotive Plastics Services: Tourism, Logistic, Storage, Communication

9. Partners search Joint projects in different branches and levels (EU programmes) Business cooperation and networking Research & Development Human resource development

10. Cluster policy Slovenia has many kinds of experience in the field of supporting end encouraging clustering, networking and collaboration. After 4 years of successful national cluster policy which has finish in 2005, a strong national policy was missing. In regional development plans throughout Slovenia we could see that the cluster policy is incorporated into those plans. The importance of the Regional policy in general is seen as improvement of competitiveness of the region, cross-regional cooperation and fostering of R&D. The Slovene innovation and competitiveness policy 2005 and on is based on supporting all economics sectors, there is no sectoral focus. The Policy is horizontal and aimed to all economic sectors. None of the measures is designed particularly for clusters. The target groups are companies (SMEs) and R&D institutions.

11. Info Euro Info Center Maribor Maribor Development Agency Pobreška cesta 20, SI - 2000 Maribor Tel.: +386 (0)2 – 333 13 02 Fax: +386 (0)2 – 333 13 09 e-mail: eic@mra.si Web page: http://eic.mra.si