Leonardo da Vinci

Community Vocational Training Action Program

Pilot Project:

Revival of the deprived areas in the European Union and in its associated countries. The case of Romania

Draft Proposal

Within the Leonardo da Vinci Community Vocational Training Action Program, an important part is represented by pilot projects involving European countries (members and associated of E.U.)

Pilot projects are important because of their span (they involve at least 3 partners from different countries), and because of the financial resources allotted for them by the E. U. (100 000 400 000 Euro).

This pilot project is initiated and developed by a taskforce team of 15 young and enthusiastic persons, students at the Faculty of Commerce from the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest, coordinated by Mrs. Gabriela STANCIULESCU, vice dean.

The main objective of the pilot project we started to work on is to offer some alternative solutions for the economic and social tribulations in the North-Eastern Romania Region and to help at the revival of the deprived area of Bucovina.

The way we thought we could reach this objective is to open a Consultancy Centre in Suceava, this city being, as we mentioned in the Area Description, one of the most important ones in the region.

If the project is approved, its budget is to be 150000 200000 yearly for the first to years, which will be dedicated to creating and developing this centre.

The consultancy experts must be trained in a foreign country, in existing similar centres, in order to gain the experience needed.

For that we appeal to your institution, hoping that you will be interested in becoming one of the foreign partners of this project.

Through the opening of the Consultancy Centre in Suceava, we intend to respond to some current needs, specific for the deprived area of Bucovina, such as:

The need of information on the existing opportunities in the area (the fiscal facilities, cheap and qualified work force, the potential of tourism, the natural resources), with minimum expenses for the public;

The need of managerial training for crisis situations (target: the business people from the area and future entrepreneurs); Consultancy regarding the start of a business, creating business plans, development strategies, the possibility of participating in different programs;

The need of promoting the area and its extraordinary opportunities (in Romania, the countries of the partners and other foreign countries)

The need of supporting the private sector (free consultancy regarding opening, developing and extending a small and medium private business; creating links with domestic and foreign business partners; bringing new financial resources in the area, reducing the unemployment)

The need to implement IT and high-tech (explaining the advantages of bringing IT into a competitive business, offering information on the soft producers and the IT providers)

The need to train consultancy experts in the field of deprived areas

We identified these needs by:

Office research (by analysing statistical data, by studying publications from The Ministry of Development and Prognosis, The Ministry of Industry, The Ministry of Labour, by Internet and mass media research)

Field research (visits in Suceava county, done by two of the team members; they had contacts and meetings with local investors and authorities, in order to take into account their opinions regarding these needs and ways of responding to them and ways of solving the problems people face in the deprived area of Bucovina)

The partners in the project

The Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, will be the contractor part.

The local partners are:

Suceava County Council it will provide the headquarters for our Consultancy Centre

Suceava Chamber of Commerce and Industry it will give us all the economic, statistical and legislative data needed

The F.R.E. Suceava Trade Union it offers us access to a computer room with 24 workstations.

Now we are looking for some foreign partners, with great experience in the field of consultancy centres for regional development and revival of deprived areas.

The finality of the project is to have a successful Consultancy Centre. But for us to be able to get good results out of it, we need partners with previous experience in this domain to guide us through the opening and the development stages of the Centre.

A training of our future consultancy specialists in similar centres from your area would be a very useful experience for the Romanian part. Therefore, we thought that one of the parts of the partnership should be the exchange of experience between the parts, meaning members of our team to come to your country for training seasons, and at the end of this period, each one of them should have the obligation to do a training project on a theme proposed by the trainer. This work that we are going to perform would be on unpaid bases, something like voluntary work.

On the other hand, specialists from your institution should come to Romania when the Centre opens and for other different events, such as conferences, seminaries and exhibitions. This way, you can see the real situation over here and you can understand why we think that this part of Romania, and not only, has a great economic potential. You will have to advice us on some activities and to suggest methods for solving the incoming problems.

Another task of the partnership, along with this mobility part, will be the advertising and through it, creating links between different businesses from the partners areas. By advertising, we understand to create a web site with links to all the partners, to create and circulate promotional materials (such as posters, leaflets, newsletters, disks, etc.) on the centre and the partners. We intend to create some theoretical supports on what consultancy is with examples from the area we work on: a CD- ROM, a book. The team members will create a new theoretical course, regarding management problems into the deprived areas.

These are the major things we thought to be the base of the partnership in the project.

Of course, for all these things to be possible, the funding for all the administrative costs of the centre, the mobility expenses and so on, will be divided in percentages between the partners.

The activity of the Centre:

The first step is represented by the theoretical and practical training of a part of the students in the similar centres in the countries of the partners.

After training the consultancy agents, the Centre will be opened, with local support. The mobility will continue, so that all the members of our team will be trained to become consultancy experts.

Another phase of the project is represented by the advertising the region and the activity of the centre in Romania and in the partner countries. This advertising will be performed the whole period of the project.

We will use the connections established with local and foreign partners and with possible investors, in order to get new financial resources in the area.

The consultancy agents working in this centre will benefit from the information and the experience provided by local and foreign partners. They will provide consultancy for local entrepreneurs, and potential investors.

Our agents will create a new university course, regarding management in deprived areas and dealing crisis situations some local entrepreneurs. This course will be an optional one for students, post university studies and will help to properly train local entrepreneurs and investors to be good managers, in the provided situation of the deprived areas.

Besides free managerial advice for local investors, the Centre aims to become a model for other similar Centres in Romania and this course will help to qualify new consultancy agents.

A first outline of the time schedule

The deadline for us to hand the pre-proposal for the project at the Leonardo da Vinci National Agency is the 18^th of January 2002.

Funds will be calculated and indicated in the project proposal. The funds that will be provided to your organisations must be used for:

training the Romanian students as consultancy agents (in the field of development of the deprived areas)

distributing advertising materials about the Bucovina region and the activity of the Centre in their region .

travelling expenses related to the visit of your representatives in Romania

The timescale of a project being approved after submission is couple of months, so we proposed as a starting date for the execution of the project the 1st of October 2002 and this leads to the 1st of October 2004 being the ending date of it.

The Pilot Project Schedule:

Expected results:

Among the expected results of the project, we mention:

Opening of the consultancy centre

20 future consultants will be trained and specialised for an efficient activity in the Suceava Pilot Consultancy Centre (the students who initiated the pilot project will undergo training courses held in the partner countries, in order to achieve the status of expert consultant)

The accomplishment of a central Web site with information regarding the existing partnership and the pilot project the consultancy centre. This site will contain a series of links to other sites, which on the one hand will provide information to the partner countries, the projects realized by the latter in the domain, the support provided to us in the accomplishment of the activity etc and on the other hand information regarding the N-E Region and the areas presenting economic difficulties in the partner countries.

Creating a database with useful information for the entrepreneurs and the investors

(this database will contain statistics regarding the economic, social and politic environment both at a micro-economic and macro-economic level.)

300 firms will benefit from our information

An important number of people will be trained to be managers of their own business

Organizing 3 conferences. During these conferences an ample discussion will take place and will comprise a detailed presentation of the information regarding the N-E Region (strong points, weak points, opportunities, threats), legislation, facilities granted to SME s in this area, steps to be followed in the formation of an SME, opportunities for obtaining expedient credits, the possibility of participating at a variety of programmes launched by the Government at a micro-economic and macro-economic level.

Organizing 6 seminaries in the first year and of 8 seminaries during the next year. The seminaries will have a specific theme, chosen in advance. The methods chosen for these seminaries are comprised of case studies, experiments and simulations. The equipment used for these seminaries resides in slate projections, video projections, PC soft specialised for experiments and simulations.

Consultancy for business plans and projects. Providing advice for the development of projects in order to obtain financial resources after two years of financing, the centre will have to obtain new funds in order to continue its activity. Its main goal is represented by the project developments, which will take part at a selection for obtaining external funds during projects ranking European level.

The relations between the business people from inside and outside the country will be propagated

The launching of a campaign for promoting the consultancy centre, the partnership, the undergoing activity and the economically challenged areas.

The consultancy centre will take part at a Fair dedicated to jobs and business opportunities. The consultancy centre will present its activity, the existent opportunities in the N-E Region for developing a business, and aside from that, the centre will be representing the various companies from the N-E Region, which does not possess the financial capacity of attending such a fair.

Developing the analytic mandatory course for Entrepreneurship in economically challenged areas, which will be introduced in the Universitys programme. Approximately 100 persons are expected to attend the Entrepreneurship in economically challenged areas course.

Conditions for opening new Consultancy Centres in other regions of the country will be created

Final Impact

Involving the local communities and authorities and changing their mentalities

Extending the partnership with similar institutions from different countries that face similar problems.

Replacing old unprofitable activities with new ones, using new technologies

Reducing the unemployment

Accelerating the economic development of the area

Contributing to Romanias integration in European Union.