Sustainable Cross-Border Clusters

Donor: The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance IPA (II) of the European Union
Partners: City of Sombor, NALED, Faculty of Agrobiotechnical Sciences Osijek, Business Incubator BIOS, Local Development Agency of the Town of Belišće
Implementation period: June 2019 - November 2021 (30 months)

Total project budget: 1 102 472.76 EUR

The amount of EU co-financing part: 937 101.83 EUR


The main challenge that will be jointly tackled by this project is the shortage of skilled labour force for SMEs in the dominant industries in the area – paper industry and mechanical engineering in Belišće and agriculture in Sombor, together with high unemployment rates and low potential for innovation. This will be done by the creation of two joint cross-border clusters – one in the sector of agriculture and applied new technology in agriculture, located in the city of Sombor, and another one in the sector of paper industry and mechanical engineering, located in the town of Belišće. Since main objective of this project is creation of favourable business environment for growth of capabilities and employment potential of SMEs, the main change it will bring about is strengthened cross-border industry-government-university-civil society cooperation through the establishment of two joint cross-border clusters, coordinated by business support institutions, in the area of Sombor and Belišće. During this project two clusters will be established, innovative mobile and web-based solution will be introduced and web-based tool for mapping of the renewable resources in agriculture in the CBC region will be developed.Together with that, two buildings will be adapted and equipped for cross-border clusters purposes. Main target group for this project are SMEs and business support organisations, but local public authorities, universities, interest groups and general public as well. This project will facilitate and significantly improve the collaboration and trade flow between the two areas allowing SMEs to form partnerships with vendors of complementary offerings and internationalise their market range.

Goals and activities
The project goal is to strengthen competitiveness and cross-border cooperation of industry, government, educational institutions and civil society in the West Bačka district and Osječko-Baranjska county, through strengthening and establishment of two cross-border clusters managed by business support institutions of the cities of Sombor and Belišće.

  • Preparation of legal, financial and organizational framework to establish the clusters
  • Establishment of two joint clusters
  • Trainings and study visits for members and potential cluster members
  • Mentoring support for cluster employees
  • Improvement of public-private dialogue on the local level
  • Designing an on-line tool for cluster members

The project is implemented within the Interreg IPA Cross-border Cooperation Program Croatia-Serbia.

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