Yesterday, the region of Abruzzo (IT) held the official launch of the Assembly of European Regions’ (AER) Business Community. Mr. Giovanni CHIODI, President of Abruzzo, stated in front of an audience of over 100 Italian businessmen, that: “The business world has changed. Today, there are no borders and no currencies. The definition of competitiveness has also evolved; we can’t boost enterprises through the traditional annual fairs or other old-fashion tools. We need to encourage regional business and SMEs towards a constant dialogue with their counter partners and introduce them to new stakeholders. Therefore, it is with great honour that I accept to be in charge of the AER Business Community”. 

 

 

“Instead of proposing business to business relations (B to B), we put forward economic exchanges through regions to regions (R to R). This is the added value of our Business Community. We will help a regional enterprise to promote and internationalize itself among our 230 member regions. We are talking about an effective economic subsidiarity” explained Pascal GOERGEN, AER Secretary General. “It is important to underline that nowadays, 99% of European enterprises are SMEs. We are talking about 23 millions enterprises! Regional authorities have the responsibility to provide concrete solutions to this new design”, he concluded.

 

On the one hand, the Business Community will be made up of a privileged pool of co-founders and other members from the private sector. On the other hand, a tailor-made package is proposed to the dynamic, open-minded and innovative SMEs. They will be included in the work of our Assembly where they will find opportunities for interregional economic exchanges, allowing them to get access to new markets, as well information on the funding and business support in Europe. Finally concrete tools in order to share best practices and expertise will also be made available. 

 

Today, already five co-founders have joined the AER Business Community: Brussels Airlines, Accor, Volvo  UNICAP Television and BNP Paribas. «The Volvo Group - whose vision is to become the world leader in sustainable transport solutions - welcomes the opportunity to cooperate with the AER. This experience will provide us with better insight of regional mobility challenges and transport needs so that, together, we will be able to develop sustainable European regions» stated Mrs. Frédérique BISTON, Volvo Group Vice-President.

 

We are proud to announce that following the official presentation of the AER Business Community, the Italian group “De Cecco” has decided to join us.  This multinational enterprise from Abruzzo has a huge impact on its regional economy. The headquarters as well as most of the workers are based in Abruzzo. Nevertheless, they are present all over the world with an impressive annual cash flow of 400 million Euros. We want to help all potential business partners of our Business Community become a “De Cecco”. 

 

Please click here in order to discover the added value of being part of our Community and our tailor-made packages. We appeal to all European regions to bring on board their SMEs.

 

Mr. Jean-Luc VANRAES, Chaiman of AER working group on ‘Investment, Business and SMEs’ invites all members to take part to the first meeting, end of November, which will gather regional authorities, enterprises and SMEs.