Description
The project has an ambition to contribute with the co-financing for the project: „Georgia on European Way: Creation of Effective Model for DCFTA and SME Strategy Implementation“, that has been supported by the European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI) and is being implemented in Georgia (further just GEO) from April 12, 2017 till April 12, 2019 by the international consortium of implementers. The applicant of this SlovakAid project is the Slovak partner of the project / member of the consortium. The main goal of the project (EuropeAid) is to strengthen capacities of Georgian CSOs and BSOs (Business Supporting Organizations) along the lines of the process of implementation of the „Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area“ (DCFTA), signed between the EU and GEO, from the point of view of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in regions of Georgia. To achieve this goal, project activities are being conducted aimed at building capacities of CSOs and SMEs through trainings in regions of country. The trainings focus on basic information as well as more specific areas DCFTA implementation – based on interest of involved SMEs representatives. The goal is to raise the awareness about what opportunities and challenges the DCFTA offers for Georgian SMEs and how they can potentially benefit from it. DCFTA itself brings number of extensive changes – many of them of rather technical character, about which are the target groups of the project (CSOs and SMEs) unaware or they possess just distorted information. Therefore, it is needed to provide them with relevant information supplemented by practical examples and experience from Slovakia. Apart from that, the project has also ambition to establish institutionalized mechanism of feed-back from regions to the decision-makers. In the preparatory phase of the project it was identified, that this direct communication link is a weakness, as the new norms and legislature stemming from the DCFTA are being implemented in a top-down approach and there is lacking mechanism that would allow transfer of feed-back from SMEs from regions on the process of implementation of the DCFTA, including identified problems, to the decision-makers in the capitol. This SlovakAid project expects realisation of 2 project activities within the implementation period (October 1, 2018 – March 30, 2019): Study visit to Slovakia for representatives of Georgian CSOs and SMEs with the aim to share Slovak experience with transition and adaptation of the Slovak SMEs to conditions of the EU single market. Second activity will be meetings (2) of the DCFTA Central Advisory Council (CAC) in Tbilisi, Georgia. The goal of this activity will be to provide representatives of Georgian decision-making state institutions involved in the DCFTA implementation feedback from SMEs and CSOs from regions on potential problems and challenges connected with the DCFTA implementation in their respective region.