Project
Viticulture industry in North-East Bulgaria and South-East Romania will benefit from a cross border Oenology and Viticulture Centre, with the beginning of 2015.
The centre will offer local and cross-border business resources, strategies and development projects, as well as microbiology and analysis laboratory facilities to small and medium enterprises involved in viticulture and fruit business, through a European funded project.
Cross Border Oenology and Viticulture Centre «Danube Terraces» Project, COD MIS–ETC 600, is co-financed through Romania-Bulgaria Cross-Border Cooperation Programme 2007-2013, Priority Axis 3: Economic and social development, Key Area of Intervention 3.1 –Support for cross-border business cooperation and promotion of a regional imagine and identity, under subsidy contract no. 57402/17.07.2013 signed by Ministry of Regional Development and Public Administration from Romania, acting as Managing Authority for Romania – Bulgaria Cross-Border Cooperation Programme 2007-2013. The aim of the centre, with offices in Ostrov and Silistra, is to contribute to the economic development of the broader cross-border region Ostrov-Silistra, by supporting the wine and viticulture sector representing a competitive advantage in areas such as Constanţa, Călăraşi, Teleorman and Giurgiu counties and Silistra, Razdrag and Ruse districts.
Cross Border Oenology and Viticulture Centre «Danube Terraces» Project will directly contribute to establishing common business interests driving the improvement of the level of economic co-operation, while directly and professionally supporting the transformation of such interests into concrete business cooperation and joint ventures. Thus, it will contribute to creating the needed means to build on and develop important existing comparative advantages at the very cross-border level, in the broader Ostrov-Silistra region, as its viticulture and wine sector represents a prime export source and economic generator for all “Danube terraces”. The sector will be supported by its Romanian and Bulgarian professional associations, whose joint initiative is to develop a common support-business centre on the very border. So, on longer terms, the project and its Centre will contribute to region’s sustainable economic development, as the sector will become more and more competitive, create new jobs, use the local resources at highest capacity, and generate more local wealth.
The Project has an immediate contribution to developing cross-border business infrastructure and services by creating the named infrastructure in the benefit of the viticulture and wine sector, covering at least 7 counties/districts in both countries and introducing 4 groups of specific and adapted business and technical services to be provided by 9 full-time and 3 part-time staff, both in Romania and Bulgaria. Moreover, the Centre will be developed and further contributing to its services by a relevant partnership, formed by a university, a research centre and a chamber of commerce, thus paving the way for concrete, business-oriented cross-border cooperation between these institutions and the wine & viticulture members of the two partner professional associations. It is in this context of a balanced economic environment for the wine & viticulture sector in the targeted region, with a dynamic sector backed by a well-established business centre and an integrated partnership of business-research-training that the sector, and with it, the region will flourish and its imagine will be positively promoted by wine exports and rising sales.