Business initiatives for SMEs in Europe: East Invest 2 and RelBiz.net March 9, 2018, Athens Marina Kaas, Vice-President of EVEA – Estonian Association of SMEs

About EVEA EVEA, founded in 1988, is the oldest independent association of private companies in Estonia EVEA is a non-partisan, non-profit NGO EVEA has members all over Estonia (appr. 1000 members in different areas of activity) EVEA is a member of UEAPME and CEA_PME (European roof-organisations of national SME-organisations) EVEA is financed by membership fees and project-based activities

Activities: Representing, advocating and lobbying for SME´s and raising awareness of their problems in society Developing business environment in Estonia and promoting entrepreneurship as a lifestyle Serving as an interface between SME´s and the policy decision-makers and various social partners on state level Providing members with information, councelling and training, as well as opportunities for networking both locally and internationally

Internationalisation – a bottleneck for SMEs! Access to EU internal market Access to new external markets Capability to finance marketing Need for low-budget support instruments

Consortium structure (Partners) Total Budget: 6,5 milllion EURO (service contract) Consortium structure (Partners) EUROCHAMBRES (Lead, BSO component, overall coordination), UEAPME (SME Academies & PPD) Timing Sept 2014 – Dec 2017 www.east-invest.eu

Objective: Developing a conducive economic environment and competitive private sector in the 6 Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova & Ukraine) while enhancing trade flows and investments between the EU and the EaP region.

Main activities For Business Support Organisations (BSOs): Twinnings (long-term EU-EaP partnerships) Exchanges (short-term EU<->EaP trainings/consultancies) Academies (topic specific trainings) Public private dialogue (round-tables, trainings /coachings) For SMEs: SME Academies (export/internationalisaiton trainings) SME Roadshows (study visits, incl B2Bs to the EU)

Main benefits Demand-driven activities, based on the needs of EaP BSOs and their members Leaders of EU BSOs acting as experts and trainers, „first-hand“ knowledge transfer Expert costs and travel covered by the project, + small lump-sums for meetings Opportunities for developing deep bi-lateral relations with new countries and opening new markets for SMEs of participating BSOs

Outcomes An interactive network of over 200 BSOs from the EaP and EU was created, which will facilitate future cooperation, interaction and sharing of experiences. 13 „twinning“ partnerships successfully implemented with more than 110 activities 24 SME Roadshows carried out to 17 EU MS, involving 11 EaP BSOs, 18 EU BSOs, 400 EaP SMEs and 1000 EU companies More than 140 new services/initiatives implemented by EaP BSOs to support local SMEs thanks to the participation in the BSO activities (BSO Academies, Twinnings, Exchanges) of East Invest 2. Lots of new friends and collegues found within „SME world“.

Business co-operation platform for SMEs in EU and 6 Eastern Partnership countries Free use by members of participating BSO-s Search for buyers, suppliers, investors, sales representatives etc. Goal to include all EU and EaP countries.

https://relbiz.net/ Contact: info@relbiz.net

THANK YOU! EVEA - 30 years of SME advocacy marina@datanet.ee www.evea.ee