The main objective of the project is to provide conditions for the strengthening of micro-enterprises and MSMEs in urban areas during the ongoing recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as during the economic recovery phase. Economic history confirms that each crisis significantly influences small enterprises, causing an increase in bankruptcies and unemployment in general. Despite the efforts of national governments to mitigate the negative effects, this support is insufficient to avoid a deep crisis. Many public institutions at the regional and local level should be more involved in supporting companies in crisis.
Consequently, the project will bring together local experiences from the urban areas of the V4 region to share best practice and contribute to providing a support framework for MSME in a post-crisis context. All these activities will be useful not only in the first impact of the negative economic effects but also in the next prosperity period where the developed tools and partnerships can be useful locally. The crisis will significantly reduce the potential of SMEs. Those who survive will require the involvement of new resources, new approaches, comprehensive solutions to adapt their economic strategies to the new reality. It is crucial to use the unexplored potential of public institutions to support MSMEs by rethinking and re-inventing connectivity and partnerships at the local and regional level.
The project will provide clear guidelines on how public institutions can generate and distribute innovative resources for SMEs, following the Sharing Economy model.
The project includes the preparation of three products:
– Methodology Plan – the product will include technical recommendations and guidelines from each project partner on how to carry out each task in the project, taking into account the current economic situation in the partner regions,
– Case Study Folder – this will be a catalogue of examples of sharing public resources with local SMEs defined in an orderly manner through the Methodology Plan.
– Sharing BOX – this will be practical product working as Quick Look + practical manual, that allows users to check readiness and availability to share public infrastructure with SME. This product will be a comprehensive solution ready to use by Target Groups in their regular activity. It will operate as a database with input-output mechanisms that through a few simple questions which define potential possibilities to use public resources in the purpose of strengthening local small companies. From a user point of view, it will work as a quiz with few levels – each will move to the more detailed element of the local potential.
