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Cross-border
economic
development
29
Practical guide : promoting projects
Providing
better support
to project
developers in
the setting-up of
their project
Many public, semi-public or private-sector structures offer
support services to project developers who are interested in
developing their activity on the other side of the border, and
to businesses in particular. Different types of support are
required in different phases of a project. Support is especially
needed when they are setting-up the project, which is when
project developers must define all of the work parameters
(regulations, potential partners, business plan and budget,
calendar, etc.).
While these support services complement each other, there
is sometimes a lack of transparency on their exact scope
of action. It is therefore important to clarify and optimise
support channels and strengthen networking.
What types of economic players should be supported?
To optimise support services on offer, it is important to clearly define
the target audience.
The economic players that require the most support are SMEs
and micro-enterprises as they are less mobile and therefore more
interested in the proximity of the cross-border dimension. In
addition, these businesses have fewer internal expert resources than
multinational companies. To SMEs we may add other structures
such as universities, research centres, clusters, etc.