Month: October 2021

In the context of the foresight activities, two online meetings were held on 26 of June, 2021 with targeted stakeholders to finalize the vision for the Region of Central Greece and discuss the potential activities and initiatives that could be included in the action plan. Particularly, during the first meeting it was pointed out the importance of creating a new type of physical agricultural stores that will sell directly the products of producers without the use of intermediaries, as an initiative to enhance both local producers and consumers.

The need for technological modernization of farms was also highlighted along with the need for finding financial tools that will support this action. While, during second meeting it was stressed the need to implement intensive education and tailor-made training course to the producers which is necessary to lead, in addition to improving the quality of production and better management of the crop, to the increase of their income. Achieving this goal must be linked to producers’ advice on what they should grow and in what quantities and soils in order to have a guaranteed income. It was also mentioned, the need to evaluate the knowledge assimilated through the utilization of precision agriculture.

In addition, the organized meetings provided the opportunity to the attendees to get informed regarding PoliRural processes, while boosting potential networking activities.

Two newcomers to the Galilee periphery, Mr. Omri Sagron, the owner and pedagogical consultant of the Cyber School SME in Israel, and Mr. Netzah Topaz, CEO, have decided to settle in the periphery after it was understood that work from a distance is possible, and the ecology in Galilee is attractive. They decided to establish the Cyber training company HIGHDELE and establish its headquarters in the north of Israel, with a very clear focus on training children in Israel and giving them an equal opportunity to advance and succeed in the local and international cyber field. From this peripheral region in Israel, they are operating a large number of activities.

It is a good example of the mission defined by the MIGAL team, in collaboration with the stakeholders, on upgrading the Galilee periphery’s digitalisation infrastructure. Cyber School has specialised in teaching informal technological training within the various educational frameworks with great success, primarily because of the professionalism and ability to develop unique content and courses. In this way, they motivate the students to succeed, inspiring them to practice the material, thus assimilating the material learned in the best way.

In order to promote the high-tech industry in northern Galilee, it is required to establish a process. There are many bodies and actors in the government, politics, entrepreneurs, investors, academia, security and more. The move needed of opening an accelerator and a technological community in the north is a move that is causing a chain reaction. Investors will discover a new north, entrepreneurship, conferences, quality people, and understand that it is worth investing in the country’s north.

The intention is that large high-tech companies will notice that it is possible to save a little and move a small development department to the north. There is already education, a population, and there are investors. Resources are relatively cheap. It is worth making even the slightest movement to encourage the growth of this high-tech industry in the north.

Vidzeme Planning Region continues running the pilot activity and is elaborating the Vidzeme Development Programme for 2021-2027. The document is being developed in close cooperation with the community, industry experts and specialists. The first version of the document was discussed in detail in several online working groups. Summarizing the results, it is known that 336 participants took part in the six discussions and 2,069 comments or suggestions were made. Most comments were received on topics such as business development, accessibility, natural capital and circular economics. In order to better understand the goals and tasks defined by the development program, infographics were prepared.

Ieva Kalniņa, Head of the Spatial planning department of Vidzeme Planning Region points out: “Quality and meaningful spatial development planning are not possible without the cooperation and targeted involvement of the various stakeholders. We gathered in discussions and discussed how we wanted to live in Vidzeme and looked for ways to achieve this: coming together is very valuable. The more we each engage in our places, the planning of our own regional development and jointly setting targets, the more we then have a lot more interest in achieving these goals. We have had a very successful cycle of online discussions – it is this format that allowed us to hear very many valuable ideas and comments. It is now a great and responsible job to analyse all the views and to integrate them as much as possible into the Vidzeme Development Road Map.”

Daiga Gargurne, Head of the local society, also a participant of online meetings says: “I welcome how Vidzeme Planning Region has chosen to organise the development of the Vidzeme Development Programme for 2021-2027. A new and fresh format has been selected. It appears that this time the public consultation has not been formally launched, but there is indeed a wide-ranging debate that calls on anyone with a view and a willingness to participate. I participated in all the thematic discussions launched. We have to be co-responsible for what happens – about what we do or not.”

Slovak pilot partners co-organized on 6 June a joint workshop with the Office of the Government for the development of civil society engagement as a follow up event after the session of the Government Council for non-governmental organizations. The event under the title “The Vision for more attractive rural areas” was organized on-line with the aim to showcast a successful model of how to involve stakeholders in different stages of elaboration of a document for rural areas. Almost 50 people registered and 35 actually participated, all of them received a recording. 

The focus was not primarily on the document as such, but on the process as such and many different stages and substages of the elaboration of the Vision document underlying the importance of actively and openly involving stakeholders in all stages through different tools (surveys, workshops, online forum discussions, rural events etc.). The participatory and inclusive process leading to the elaboration of the document is equally important as the document itself. The main motto is “Let´s make the rural areas more attractive for life, work and investment TOGETHER” and thus unite all relevant stakeholders in solving common problems and to look for opportunities to make rural towns and occupations more attractive to the settled rural population, as well as to the new or potential newcomers. The main goal is to contribute to strengthening the position of the rural population and support the sustainable development of rural regions.