Eco Plus Ltd. – the Regional Development
Agency of Lower Austria – is owned by the Province of Lower Austria and its aim
is to strengthen economics, social and cultural development throughout Lower
Austria – in particular – in its structurally weak regions. Eco Plus operates
in seven specialised service areas:
Investment promotion
Management of Eco Plus Business parks
Cross-border and interregional projects
Management of Eco Plus shareholdings
Regional consulting and network building
Promotion of regional projects and initiatives
EU regional development advisory service
Eco Plus can offer a long-standing
experience in the development and managing of industrial parks (39 years),
investment promotion (29 years) and promotion of regional projects and
initiatives (15 years) and has been one of the major "players" in the
implementation of the structural funds in Lower Austria. The Company also
analyses cluster potentials within the province and its neighbours and builds
up Cluster organisations. There are already three clusters operating, namely in
the fields of timber, automotives and wellbeing. Since Lower Austra was highly
effected by the fall of the "iron curtain" and will be by the ongoing
process of the EU-enlargement, Eco Plus has set up a service department on
cross-border and interregional projects – especially in the CEEC. Since 1997
the departments has been operating to endorse the services offered by Eco plus
throughout different activities and projects, divided into four fields of
competencies:
Climate for internationalisation
Information
Networks
Business activities
Eco Plus has been assigned to co-ordinate
cross-border activities to the Central and Eastern European Countries within
the Regional Innovation Strategy (RIS) of Lower Austira and succeeding
projects. So far Eco Plus has carried out projects in the Slovak and the Czech
Republic and in Poland, Hungary and Slovenia. Here are just some examples:
Lead partner and project-co-ordinator of RDA-net CEDA, which is
a network of Regional Development Agencies in the Central European and
Danubian Areas (INTERREG IIC Project). www.rda-ceda.net
Innovative regions fostering cross-border business co-operation
between EU and NAC regions (Crobobuco) is a Europe-wide thematic network
to promote the exchange of experiences as well as the development of
instruments and projects for the support of cross-border business
activities. Eco Plus is the lead partner for this project, supported by
the European Commission's Directorate General for Enterprise as part ot
the innovation and SMEs programme (5th Framework Programme). www.crobobuco.net
The INTERREG IIA-project "TriRegional Information System
(TRI)" has been conducted in the Lower Austrian – Slovak – Czech
border region to create a sustainable, comparable basis of statistical and
geographic data. A basic data set, relevant to potential investors, is
available on www.triregion.net
The INTERREG IIA-project "SPOLU – fit for new
markets" was a joint project of the Lower Austrian Chamber of
Commerce, Eco Plus and the regional managements, dealing with the support
of cross-border business activities between Lower Austria, Slovakia and
Czech Republic, entrepreneurs and institutions
It offered several co-ordination, information and co-operation
events for entrepreneurs and institutions
Within the 1997 Phare-Partnership Programme in Poland, Eco Plus
provided technical assistance to Rzeszow Regional Development Agency in
setting up a Regional Investment Centre.
Diane (Direct Investment Agency Net) works on the improvement
of the business location and positioning of the "enlarged Vienna
Region" in the global competition of investor services.
