The Business Valley BUG is a new economically attractive cross-border space in Eastern Europe that unites territories of three countries – the Brest region (Belarus), the Lubelskie Voivodeship (Poland) and the Volyn region (Ukraine) – into one market located in the Bug river valley. All these regions are parts of the Euroregion Bug.
However, the idea of such common market came from the Rhein or, to be more precise, from the German-French cross-border PAMINA located on the Rhein. In 2003, The German-Belarusian House (DWH), Karlsruhe, Germany, initiated a European project under the title “EU – Enlargement and Foreign Direct Investments in Border regions to the CIS – Activities for the region where three countries meet at Bug”, also known as the FDI-Project (FDI stands for Foreign Direct Investments), in order to transform the cross-border region on the Bug into a common market with high economic potential, involving Belarusian, Polish and Ukrainian local authorities. Ms. Patricia Ruppert, MBA (UK), project manager and Managing Director of the German-Belarusian House, answered our questions concerning the project itself, its objectives and current results.
How did the idea of the FDI-Project appear?
Ms. Patricia Ruppert: It is quite easy. For many years now, Europe has been boasting its significant experience in establishment and development of cross-border cooperation, especially in the field of successful cooperation in the sphere of economic development and marketing promotion of the cross-border regions. In addition, mission of the German-Belarusian House (DWH) is to transfer successful European experience in different spheres to Belarus, in order to contribute to the country’s development and to foster establishment of open and trust-based partner relations with Europe.
In 2002, the German-Belarusian House, together with experts from Karlsruhe, a German city in the cross-border region PAMINA with approximately 300,000 population, elaborated an idea of the FDI-Project and coordinated it with the Brest Regional Executive Committee and Administration of the Free Economic Zone “Brest” (FEZ “Brest”). Polish and Ukrainian partners readily agreed to participate in the project. Because this cross-border space can prove attractive for allocation of enterprises from the land Baden-Württemberg where Karlsruhe is located, DWH attempted to involve the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Economy in the project as well – and succeeded in this endeavour.
The FDI-Project is already a third initiative of DWH that is co-financed by EU and implemented on the territory close to the new Eastern border of Europe. Both previous DWH projects are still showing positive results:
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TRIC-platform: opening of the “TRIC Brest”, the first Cross-border Information Centre in Brest, and development of the Transboundary Information and Contact Platform (TRIC-platform) www.tric.info for the Polish-Belarusian border crossing point Brest-Terespol;
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Development of the Cross-border Information Centre TRIC Brest: elaboration of a concept for further development of the Cross-border Information Centre, including staff trainings in the PAMINA region, elaboration of information materials and corporate identity, as well as transfer of experience in the sphere of marketing promotion of the Polish-Belarusian region. In the course of the project, this region got the name “Pribuzhie” and began to be marketed as a unique and original space with common history, culture and nature heritage in order to develop tourism within its borders.
What is the mail idea and objectives of the project?
Ms. Patricia Ruppert: Asia is not the only location with high potential for business development. On the contrary, here, on the EU Eastern border, there is a thrilling but almost undiscovered economic space – Euroregion Bug. If located here, European enterprises get easy access to the markets of the three countries – Poland, Belarus and Ukraine – at the same time.
Another strength of the Euroregion Bug is established cooperation with the three countries that lie in different proximity to the EU. Since 2004, European entrepreneurs have increasingly looked at the new EU member, Poland, as a location with high potential for business allocation, while also regarding Ukraine and Belarus as further steps to be taken in order to tap this market and lower production costs. Another important feature of the FDI-Project is common promotion of the region as a cross-border economic space: indeed, success in regional marketing to a large extent depends on goal-oriented, common and coordinated activities.
Thus, within the framework of the project, the three regions – the Volyn region (Ukraine), the Brest region (Belarus) and the Lubelskie Voivodeship – formed a common cross-border economic space named the Business Valley BUG, in order to offer foreign enterprises and investors focused allocation and comprehensive support in organisation of their businesses. Due to these services, enterprises can now benefit from individual “first-hand” approach to their problems and support of local authorities of the three regions, as well as from all location advantages of this geostrategic space between EU, Ukraine, Belarus and Russian Federation.
What are the target groups of the FDI-Project, and who benefits from its implementation?
Ms. Patricia Ruppert: In the course of the project, we tried to bring together regional and local authorities, so that they could give collective solutions to the issues related to the Business Valley BUG. However, the FDI-Project is focused on various target groups that are either interested in economic development of the cross-border regions or view it as a territory with high potential for business allocation:
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Local and regional authorities of the Business Valley BUG, because their responsibilities lie in the sphere of executive and strategic regional management and because they determine economic development of the region;
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Foreign enterprises and investors from EU, Poland, China who look for new markets and territories with potential for allocation of their businesses;
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Regional and local small and middle-sized business of Belarus, Poland and Ukraine;
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Agencies for regional development responsible for executive marketing promotion of the region on the local and international levels;
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Local and international Chambers of Commerce and Industry;
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Important decision-making actors, such as Secretariats of the Euroregion Bug in Chelm (Poland), Lutsk (Ukraine) and Brest (Belarus);
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Local and international mass media;
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Embassies and foreign missions.
What role does the German-Belarusian House play in the project?
Ms. Patricia Ruppert: The German-Belarusian House has been actively working in Belarus since 1994. While implementing projects and initiatives, it acts as an initiator and an experienced European project partner on the one hand; on the other hand, due to its active endeavours, it transfers experience in various fields, such as communal services, social sphere, economy, culture, etc, thus acting as a know-how transmitter. It also acts as a networker that establishes contacts between different actors on the local, national and European levels, which is especially important for implementation of such large initiatives as the FDI-Project, as well as maintains and supports of the achieved results. In Belarus, establishment and maintenance of contacts on the local level is the primary responsibility of the DWH Institution INTERACTION.
In other words, rich experience of the German-Belarusian House makes it an ideal partner in development of project proposals that aim to get co-financing from the budget of EU support programmes, as well as in their promotion and further implementation; indeed, effective implementation of European projects always requires some kind of professional support. As to German enterprises, DWH also acts as consultant and catalyser that helps them to tap Belarusian market.
