Business Take-off: Regional Conference in Rijeka 2018
‘Poslovni uzlet’ or ‘Business Take-off’ is a project established by the leading Croatian business journal and news portal ‘Poslovni dnevnik’. The aim of the project is to organize business and regional-economic oriented events in every Croatian county, and to gather within the local stakeholders around specific topics. This year Business Take-off took place in Rijeka, on 17th October 2018, with the central theme – ‘EU funds as a support of regional development’.
Mr. Marko Filipovic, Deputy Mayor of the City of Rijeka, opened the conference along with Primorsko-goranska County governor Zlatko Komadina. Mr. Filipovic highlighted the fact that the city of Rijeka is leading Croatian city both by the number and the amount of funds raised by EU projects, mainly in the fields of energy, mobility, culture, and smart city solutions.
“The city of Rijeka is in the process of transformation: the industry 4.0 is developing and the new investments are arriving. From the existing point of view, city of Rijeka is a national leader of the economics of the future.”
In the following panel discussion ‘Successful implementation of a development projects’ representatives from the local business support organizations, as well as from innovation-oriented SMEs, showcased their work and commitment as a good practice example. The most related to URBAN INNO was the intention and aim said by Mr. Vedran Kruzic, head of Regional development agency:
“The city of Rijeka is the ‘smartest’ city in Croatia. We accepted the role to recognize and improve smart solutions not just at the city level, but in regional context. Our goal is to position (Primorsko-goranska) county as a ‘smart region’, and to support the establishment and development of regional clusters.”
The event ended with 2 workshops: one related with lending and other measures for increasing the investments, and the other with presentation of measures of rural development.
City of Rijeka, as co-organizer of the event, presented at the promotion booth several ongoing EU projects which are close to the conference features. URBAN INNO took the central place for the fact it is integrating 4 stakeholders’ helix of the urban ecosystem, responsible to foster urban innovations in the smart city concept. The City of Rijeka presenters at the booth explained for the approached participants the main outputs of the project in general, with special focus on local achievements, results and potential which may improve the future interaction between City and citizens, as well as within all parties in urban ecosystem.
Ms. Jana Sertić, head of the Department for entrepreneurship of the City of Rijeka, along with Mr. Dario Dobrilović, senior advisor at the same Department.
