EGNATIA VAE – Cross-Border Vertical Axes of Entrepreneurship in Support of Youth and Women

EGNATIA-VAE, as a multifaceted approach to the strengthening of entrepreneurship and competitiveness in eligible regions adjacent to the Egnatia Motorway vertical road axes, involved an integrated intervention programme that not only exploited newly emerged opportunities but also faced several recorded local problems. The project idea has emerged by the new perspectives for extroversion, economic development and promotion of the cross-border relations, in entrepreneurship terms, that the Egnatia Motorway construction created. The Egnatia Motorway extension by reducing the distances among the cross-border regions contributed to the smoothest and more effective movement of goods and ideas, creating more prospects for the promotion of new business initiatives and activities in the targeted area. The project stimulated special social groups to undertake business initiatives and the potential entrepreneurs’ and the local business communities to strengthen their competences, providing to them the necessary preconditions (training, specialization, business activities’ proposals, business methods and tools, mentoring & consulting services, etc). The portal that was created, through an updated business information platform, new methods and tools of business development & management and focusing on e-learning and e-support mechanisms for the entrepreneurship promotion, contributed to the strengthening of regional business competences and inter-operational networking.