The conference was organised by the Balkan Political Club and the Bulgarian SEECP Chairmanship. It tried to define the scope of a Competitiveness Agenda for South Eastern Europe (SEE) and the role of Regional Co-operation Council (RCC) in promoting knowledge-based economies in the region. The conference discussed achievements, deficiencies, prospects of the knowledgebased economies and possible synergies between different stakeholders.
During the opening Daniel Valchev, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Science and the former President of the Republic of Bulgaria, Zhelyu Zhelev, discussed the present situation of research, education and the specific role of business and governmental interventions. The positive experience and effect of the SEE-ERA.NET and the Steering Platform was mentioned, general principles and the agenda of the RCC with reference to innovation and competitiveness were outlined.
The first session involved Madlen Serban (Task Force Education and Youth) and Anton Dobart (Task Force Fostering and Building Human Capital) as well as Nikos Sidiropoulos from GSRT. The latter introduced the SEE-ERA.NET project, the steps towards the development of a regional programme (ReP-SEE) as well as the possibly funded SEE-ERA.NET on Innovation (currently under evaluation by the European Commission). He also referred to the WBC-INCO.NET project. This panel was completed by Saha Besuhanova, Director General of Hewlett-Packard Bulgaria, who is also active in the Central European Initiative.
Ivo Slaus (Croatian Academy of Sciences, President of SEED of the World Academy of Sciences) discussed possible development paths and the applicability of the triple helix model in SEE. Case studies from Belgium, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Romania provided information on recent trends and best practice on a regional and sectoral level.

The organisers prepared a statement on the results of the conference and guidelines for setting up the Competitiveness Agenda for SEE. These conclusions recognise that a significant progress has been made in the last year in laying the foundations of co-operation in the field of research via SEE-ERA.NET and the Steering Platform on Research for the Western Balkan countries.

Recommendations to the Regional Co-operation Council include
■ to further support coordination of the national education and research policies in SEE;
■ to closely associate and cooperate (e.g. in the form of a Steering Committee) with other stakeholders such as SEE-ERA.NET, the Steering Platform on Research for the Western Balkan countries, the Balkan Political Club, the Interacademy SEE Council, the CEEN platform, the Business Advisory Council established under Stability Pact and other relevant regional governmental and non-governmental organisations;
■ to organise a Regional Education-Research-Industry Forum (RERIF) for the elaboration of a Competitiveness Agenda for SEE based on synergies among the existing mechanisms and tools for co-operation in building human capital and economic development.
■ to charge the Steering Committee and RERIF with several tasks such as to map excellent research centres, high-tech and middle-tech companies and to support their inclusion in relevant networks in order to establish an academia-industry-government cooperation.

The chairmanship in office of the SEECP will be passed on to Moldova (July 2008 - June 2009), an International Conference on Science and Education Policies to be held September 18-21, 2008 in Chisinau might be included in the SEECP Moldovan Presidency Calendar of Events. The high level representatives from Moldova confirmed their interest to focus on Building Human Capital during the SEECP chairmanship in office.

Author:
Felix Gajdusek http://www.wbc-inco.net/users/287.html
Austrian Science and Research Liaison Office Sofia http://www.wbc-inco.net/org/509.html