Stakeholders of Ivančna Gorica meet
On 4 December 2023, the introductory meeting of the stakeholders of the InnoCom project took place in the Carniolan Bee House. At the event, the main topic of InnoCom project, the time and financial framework of the project, partnership, methodology and expected results were presented.
In order to spread good practices and increase the added value of the meeting, in addition to formal presentation of InnoCom project, Monika Kirbiš Rojs also presented concrete measures of Slovenian municipalities to promote entrepreneurship and small businesses, current and foreseen tenders for EU funds from the Recovery and Resilience Plan and Cohesion Policy. An example of the rulebook on the allocation of funds to promote the development of entrepreneurship in one of the Slovenian municipalities was shown. Cooperation was also established and a method of collaboration with project stakeholders was agreed upon.
The meeting was attended by Deputy Mayors of Municipality of Škofljica Bojan Božič and Boris Zupančič, Maja Janša, expert associate of the Municipality of Grosuplje, business secretary of the Grosuplje Regional Chamber of Commerce Patricija Brezovar, Maja Lampret, head of Institute Prijetno domače Ivančna Gorica, and from the Municipality of Ivančna Gorica, Deputy Mayor Tomaže Smole, head of the investment department, Simon Kastelic and municipal administration employee Matej Šteh.
The participants of the event agreed that there is still a lot of room for improvement in the area of communication between local authorities and SMEs in relation to obtaining EU funds.
Indeed, European funds have a significant impact on the development of the member states of the European Union and its regions, whereby the identification of opportunities, the appropriate preparation and application for tenders, the implementation of projects and the subsequent successful drawing of grants are of key importance. There are many obstacles during this process. One of them is certainly institutional communication towards SMEs in reference to tenders for obtaining European funds.
By participating constructively in the InnoCom project, the stakeholders will make a significant contribution to the implementation of the European cohesion policy, which is the main investment policy of the European Union. With its help, many projects have been implemented in Slovenia that have significantly contributed to the faster development of the country.