Latvia, together with partners from Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Belgium, Hungary, will explore the experience of other countries within the framework of Interreg Europe project “Skills and Scale to Connect for Business Acceleration Services policy transfer” and will explore additional solutions to facilitate the further development of the start-up ecosystem and attract investment in Latvian start-ups.
The Latvian side of the project will be represented by the Ministry of Economics and the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry; other Member States will be represented in the project by representatives of state institutions and non-governmental organisations, as well as business organisations.
National representatives have engaged in a joint project to familiarise themselves with experiences of other countries in the development of the current policy and support instruments for start-ups, as well as to improve the capacity and abilities of public and business support organisations to improve the business environment, with particular focus on the start-up eco-system. To this end, the partnership with the project will be formed by a group of public and private organisations with complementary experience and competence.
Currently, only the criteria for granting support, the qualification requirements of venture capital investors, the procedures and competence for the establishment of the commission for evaluation of the performance of start-ups are specified in the Law On Aid for the Activities of Start-up Companies in Latvia. It is planned that the project will result in the development of guidelines for the further development of the start-up ecosystem and additional proposals for support measures in order to contribute to the improvement of the functioning of the start-up ecosystem and ensure attraction of investments to Latvian start-ups.
During the first meeting of the project partners, representatives of Latvia had the opportunity to become acquainted with all the project partners and the strategies and specifications of their organisations, as well as to exchange good practice and get an idea of the problems of partner countries for which solutions will be sought within the framework of the project. The progress of project implementation was also discussed, experience of partners in project implementation was gained, as well as future project activities were planned.
It was also an opportunity to get to know the Talent House in San Sebastian, where residents do research, and to visit their accommodations. The Talent House aims to encourage hiring of high-profile professionals and researchers, as well as attract international researchers. In addition, there was an opportunity to explore the operations of two startups “Onena Medicines” and “i2U” from the accelerator programme.
Workshops with policy makers and stakeholders will be organised during the next project to improve support activities for start-ups for partner countries of the project. At the end of the project, each member state will present a solution developed for the development of the start-up sector in its own country; Latvia is planning to develop guidelines for further development of the start-up ecosystem and additional proposals for support measures.
Scalability is a key factor in strengthening the competitiveness of production companies in the EU region at both local and global level. This is important because business expansion means that SMEs will be able to work with more customers, resources and data. By effectively supporting them in this process, EU companies will be able to maintain the quality and overall efficiency of their products or services and maintain their growth and impact on employment.
The project is funded by the Interreg Europe programme.