TARGET AREA

The project activities will take place within the boundaries of two municipalities in the regions of the Vardar and Western Macedonia. Both cities are centred around (the same) river, share similar characteristics of natural and cultural capital. Moreover, they have similar aspirations and visions for urban development.

In more detail, the target of the project differs concerning its outputs, results, and impact. Mainly the outputs of the project will affect the two municipalities since both the infrastructure and the resource centre will be located in Veles and Florina respectively. In particular, the Business Capacity Workshop and Masterclasses will take place in the new Development Agency of Florina premises. The call will not only take into consideration businesses from within the municipality borders, though direct outputs are expected to be local in scope.

Nevertheless, the results of the project are expected to have a wider geographical scope, with a focus in the rural landlocked parts of the CBA. One of the main aspirations of COunT is to localize parts of the Value Chain in the arts and crafts sector. Such a localization will increase the multiplying events of the investment made from this particular project and other projects in the Tourism Sector. With a localized value chain the benefit of a grant receiver will be distributed to multiple actors within the area. Therefore, the project aspires to have an important indirect result in the overall rural parts of the CBA, especially supporting the micro and small SME’s in the area.

In an even wider scope, the impact of the project aspires to have a wider scope and become a good practice concerning how other parts of the Tourism sector can localize value chains to further support the rural economy and reverse the negative demographic flows in the rural parts of the CBA area