SUCCESS FOCUSSED

Eastern Poland Macroregion comprises the five provinces: Lublin, Podkarpacie, Podlasie, Świętokrzyskie and Warmia-Mazury.  These provinces within the framework of the previous EU perspective were granted more than 112 billion PLN for more than 28 000 projects. The opportunities and the challenges for the regions in the coming years were discussed during the "Eastern Poland today and tomorrow" Forum.

- My greatest ambition has been to create a strong and stable relationship between business and universities. I attach high hopes to entrepreneurship and innovativeness development in Eastern Poland.  I wish to see this development gain dynamics and set out the trends for other Polish regions. Therefore expansion of the SMART strategy is not without significance - said Swietokrzyskie Voivodeship Marshal - Adam Jarubas

Innovative solutions for the macro-region were also discussed in the context of the Forum simultaneously-held third International Expo of Innovativeness and New Technologies INNO-TECH EXPO. The barriers for seamless development of the sector were discussed too.

- Innovativeness pace is slower than expected. The support provided until now has been mainly used by research centres rather than entrepreneurs. Now we need to think how to induce a need for innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises  - said Marshal of Lublin, Sławomir Sosnowski, during the conference.

The conference held in the Omega hall brought together, inter alia, Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Infrastructure and Development - Iwona Wendel, the Member of European Parliament - Krzysztof Hetman, the Marshal of Lublin Voivodeship - Sławomir Sosnowski, Podkarpackie Voivodeship Marshal - Władysław Ortyl, Deputy Marshal of the Podkarpacie - Anna Naszkiewicz, Marshal of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship - Adam Jarubas and the Marshal of Warmia - Mazury - Gustaw Marek Brzezin.