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9:30 am to 11:00 pm
Entrepreneurs without borders
What is the best way of encouraging cross-border entrepreneurship? Despite belonging to the Schengen area and the single market, borders continue to bar the way of European entrepreneurs. Having said this and on thinking it over, there are fewer obstacles to developing business on the other side of border than most might construe. French companies are indeed dinding it hard to set up in Belgium, for example, but this is due to a lack of knowledge of the other country in question (language, culture, market players, etc.) rather than plain incompatibility. Entrepreneurs wishing to "cross" the border can count on the help of cross-border collaboration organisations, bringing together private and public bodies as well as universities, with cross-border entrepreneurship as their number one objective. These organisations have little by little turned into true resources centres, helping to simplify entrepreneurs' administrative steps and access to information on the other country. The GOKmo group Cross-border centre is thus encouraging a mutual undestanding between the countries France and Belgium in order to facilitate the process of setting-up of companies in partner markets. Since the CCIs in San Sebastian (northern Spain) and Bayonne joined forces within the same organisation, the companies they accompany have a more pertinent approach to local markets. However, the greatest benefit for entrepreneurs remains being able to integrate a growing network created by collaboration organisations over the years. Meetings and exchanging experiences ans good practices are still the most efficient tools for expanding your business on the other side of border.
» Charge the report of the workshop 1
For more information :
1, 2, 3 GO - Business Initiative a.s.b.l .
HSE Small Business Center
CTE GO-Kmo
» Return to workshops
Facilitator:
A top Reporter for "L'entreprise" magazine (Express-Roularta group) and author of the book "Créez ou développez son entreprise en Europe". Corine Moriou was project manager at the Agence Pour la Création d'Entreprises, in Paris. After accompanying numerous foreign investors in their company development projects in France, she joined the Crédit Lyonnais Corporate Market Directorate.
Speakers:
The 1,2,3, GO operation is enjoying growing success with 169 companies set up and over 900 jobs generated in the Grande Région (Belgium, Luxembourg, Lorraine and Sarre). Through this initiative, innovative, high-potential projects can be tracked down and given assistance in putting together their business plan.
This success is based on the interregional nature of the business development projects in Luxembourg, implying the rapid development of contacts beyond borders and business expansion beyond the Luxembourg’s territory.
The two CCI’s of Bayonne Pays Basque (France) and Guipuzkoa (Spain) initiate an innovative cross-border consular cooperation framework. The aim is to integrate cross-border projects within a specific and sustainable framework. This cross-border organisation should extend to bilateral projects devoted to the economy, research and infrastructures. This initiative seeks top be intgrated within Eurocité Bayonne-Saint-Sébastien and in the development of the Eurorégion Bordeaux-Bilbao.
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Päivi Karhunen, CEMAT Helsinki School of Economics (Finland) - Doctor
www.hse.fi
The HSE Small Business Center is specialised in the development of knowledge of the business world and entrepreneurship through offices in Helsinki, Mikkeli (Finland), Saint Petersburg (Russia) and Talinn (Estonia). The aim is to develop academic research between three countries around entrepreneurial issues with a view to coming away with knowledge applicable to concrete cases in business.
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Bram Lievrouw, Unizo (Belgium) – CTE Coordinator
www.unizo.be
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Sophie Schmitz, IDETA (Belgium) - CTE GO-KMO Project Coordinator
www.ideta.be
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Ceccotti Olivier, CCI Grand Lille (France) – Head of the Centre Transfrontalier des Entreprises (Cross-border business centre)
www.grand-lille.cci.fr
The fruit of the merging of the CTDIC, DTE and Archange projects, CTE GO-KMO is the cross-border accompaniment service of 14 French and Belgian economic institutions (Flemish and Walloon).
Its aim is to accompany the SME’s of the Nord Pas de Calais, Aisne, Ardennes, western Flanders and Walloonia, or southern Belgium (Hainaut, Namurois and Belgian Luxembourg) seeking to develop on both sides of the Franco-Belgian border. |
