BALKAN & BLACK SEA CLUSTERS SYNERGY

CLUSTER FAMILY

DAYS OF CLUSTERS 2014 TEKIRDAG TURKEY

AFTER CONFERENCE

The 5th Balkan and Black Sea conference „Days of Clusters“ was held from 30th to 31st October 2014 at the hotel “RAMADA” in Tekirdag, Marmara Sea, Turkey, as a partnership of “Cluster House” from Serbia, led by Ms Danka Milojkovic, the co-chairman of the conference and the Trakya Development Agency TRAKYAKA, led by Mr. Mahmut Sahin, the general secretary and co-chairman of the conference.

BALKAN & BLACK SEA CLUSTERS SYNERGY

The conference “Days of Clusters” was started 5 years ago in Nis, in south Serbia, with the support of the Danish programme for local economic development in the Balkans LEDIB, under the leadership of Mr. Carsten Lund and the initiative of Ms Danka Milojkovic and Mr. Goran Zlatkovic. Although it was started as a regional event, it soon developed into a transnational brand recognizable on a global level.

Last year’s “Days of Clusters” were executed at the proposal of the Bulgarian cluster community, and under the patronage of the President of the Republic of Bulgaria. This year’s conference is in Tekirdag due to the recommendation and efforts of Mr. Yavuz ÖZUTKU from the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Turkey and Mr. Vedat Kunt, a cluster and marketing expert from Vego Consulting from Izmir.

This year’s conference gathered over 250 professionals from 17 countries: Turkey, Serbia, Romania, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Spain, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece and Hungary. 40 speakers from 14 countries shared their knowledge and experience about cluster development with the aim of achieving sustainable economic development in the region.

The strong promotional support of the supporting institutions: global TCI network in Barcelona, Austrian Clusterland, TMG-DanuClus Danube strategy, and ECCP, has contributed to the cluster networking in the region and the promotion of Trakya region and the conference brand in Europe and worldwide.

BALKAN & BLACK SEA CLUSTERS SYNERGY

The conference contributed to cluster synergy creation in the Balkan and Black Sea region through:

Building of public private dialog,

Exchange of knowledge and experiences in cluster development in developed countries and countries in transition,

Presentation of cluster success stories in the region,

Cross cluster networking regarding efficient development of new projects and approach to development funds.

Partnership between TRAKYAKA and Cluster House, commenced with the implementation of the conference "Days of Clusters", contributed to the initiation of the cluster development in Trakya region and cross border networking between Trakya region and the Balkans’ countries.

Trakya region, in which is one of the leading cities Tekirdag, is the third most competitive region in Turkey, and Turkey is the 17th economy in world. Beside numerous industrial zones and great numbers of international companies, the Trakya wine cluster is established in Trakya region with the support of the Tekirdag Chamber of Commerce and Industry, www.tekirdagtso.org.tr, under the leadership of the President of the Tekirdag Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Cengiz GÜNAY. The Trakya wine cluster is in close partnership relations with Wine cluster from Spain.

Upon the proposal of Mr. Vedat Kunt, a member of the Conference Programme Committee, this year's conference is enriched with the session "Cross-border wine cooperation", which brings together top wine producers from the Balkans and the Black Sea region.

The wine session presented the following wineries: “URLA winery ” Turkey (facebook/urlawines, twitter/urlawines), „Suvla winery” Turkey www.suvla.com, “Melen winery” Turkey www.melenwinery.com, “Gürbüz Gıda A.Ş.“ Turkey www.kalpak.net, “Tikveš Wine Route” Macedonia www.tikveswineroute.com, “Radevic winery” Montenegro www.radevicestate.com, a brand “Cviček” Slovenia.

BALKAN & BLACK SEA CLUSTERS SYNERGY

At one hour-long exhibition event "Info Cluster Hour" during the first day of the conference, the Cluster “Organica” Macedonia, www.clusterorganica.org.mk, presented their wines. The core value of the wine session is in creation of networking between the wine producers in Turkey and the region. Turkish wine producers are still not well known on the world wine map and as individual producers they will never be able to draw worldwide attention to Turkey as a country with top wine producers. Cluster approach of connecting wine makers in Turkey and the region will contribute to increasing competitiveness and penetrating markets.

BALKAN & BLACK SEA CLUSTERS SYNERGY

Mr. Fabio Russo, Senior Industrial Development Officer, United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Austria, presented to conference participants UNIDO methodology for cluster development in detail and pointed to tools that UNIDO developed with the aim of supporting sustainable economic development. UNIDO publications “Adding value to traditional products of regional origin. A guide to creating an origin consortium” and “The UNIDO Approach to Cluster Development. Key Principles and Project Experiences for Inclusive Growth” are available at the conference web page.

Professor Vassilis Makios , General Director, Corallia, Athens, Greece, when talking about Corallia model of cluster development, stressed the meaning of big companies and creativity.

Mr. Daniel Cosnita, Head of Romanian Cluster Association CLUSTERO, Bucharest, Romania, pointed out cross-border sector networking of clusters as a future direction of cluster development in the Balkans, as well as the meaning of training for cluster managers.

Mr. Vedat Kunt, Managing Partner at VEGO Consulting & Training ltd., Izmir, Turkey, revealed the magic word for cluster development to participants, and that is cooperation and that everything depends on people.

Mr. Werner Pamminger, Director, Clusterland, Linz, Austria, replaced networking of companies with personnel networking, he also pointed to the meaning of public financing that for cluster development needs to be 95% and instead of directing clusters to IR, which demands significant financial investment in order to get “know-how”, being focused on innovations that from “know-how” make money.

Mr. Cem Cetintas, Owner, Melen Winery , Tekirdag, Turkey, said for Trakya wine cluster “we are many, we are one” and that requires a long period of confidence building.

Mr. Carsten Lund, LEDIB Cluster House Assembly President, Copenhagen Denmark, when speaking about the model of Cluster House, stressed the meaning of cross-border networking, improving visibility and promotion as activities that contribute to better mutual understanding, and in that way to sustainable economic development.

Speakers of this year’s conference revealed in their presentations and discussions numerous keys for cluster development in the region. The co-chairman of the conference, Ms Danka Milojković, said in her final speech that the key of all keys is love, a sincere emotion towards surroundings as the core initiator of positive changes and overall progress. Ms Milojković reminded conference participants that they are the ones that can contribute to creating happy people in the region, so that the Balkans can be prosperous and attractive for living.

Traditionally, at the gala dinner, “Cluster House” granted awards and acknowledgements for cluster development in the Balkan and Black Sea region, and this time to: Mr. Yavuz ÖZUTKU, Mr. Vedat KUNT and Mr. Mahmut SAHIN, the general secretary of TRAKYAKA.

BALKAN & BLACK SEA CLUSTERS SYNERGY

The host of the conference TRAKYAKA has enabled conference participants to enjoy Turkish music and food, and to visit Edirne, the capital city of the Ottoman Empire.

Speakers presentations and abstracts, photos and video from the conference are available at: http://daniklastera.clusterhouse.rs/ .

Please notice that the next year’s conference is planned for 22nd - 23rd of October 2015 in one of the interested countries to be the conference host: Croatia (Division for Competitiveness Clusters, Sector for Competitiveness, Zagreb), Romania (Romanian Cluster Association CLUSTERO, Bucharest) , Macedonia (Tikves Wine Route, Demir Kapia) or Turkey (TRAKYAKA, Tekirdag).

BALKAN & BLACK SEA CLUSTERS SYNERGY

The Cluster House, as a founder and co-organizer of the conference, would like to thank the host of the conference Trakya Development Agency and Mr. Mahmut Sahin for the excellent cooperation from April until today and the possibility to continue even more intensive cross-border connection of south Serbia and Thrace region after the conference. A big thank you to all the members of the Organizing Committee of the conference Mr. Karaman and his associates Ismail, Yetkin, Gamze, Nihan, Ismet, Ahmet, Uğur and others for their patient cooperation with the Cluster House and dedicated work in order for us together to achieve the most successful conference up to now.

For successful informing of the conference participants I would like to commend the work of the Balkan Cluster Network and the Info centre of the Cluster House. The Balkan Cluster Network includes more than 170 cluster organizations and support institutions from all of the Balkan countries. The Info centre of the Cluster House has more than 3000 contacts with experts in the field of economic development, institutions and entrepreneurs. The membership is free, and the mission of the network is cluster synergy in the Balkans in order to develop transnational projects, approach development funds and appear on new markets. The Cluster House, as the initiator and coordinator of the Balkan Cluster Network, developed a model for development of the SMEs and clusters in

transitional countries that encourages synergetic effects of the cross-border cluster cooperation in the region.

BALKAN & BLACK SEA CLUSTERS SYNERGY

CONFERENCE OPENED WITH THE WORDS “WELCOME CLUSTER FRIENDS”,

SYNERGY BETWEEN PARTICIPANTS CONTRIBUTED THAT FRIENDSHIP HAS GROWN UP IN CLUSTER FAMILY

THAT WILL ENABLE THE BALKAN AND BLACK SEA REGION TO GROW INTO A SAFE AND LOVING HOME FOR NATIONS WHO INHABIT IT.

GREAT CLUSTER REGARDS TO GREAT CLUSTER FAMILY!

Teams of CLUSTER HOUSE & TRAKYAKA

November 18, 2014