Page 10 - NMEA Annual Report 2019-2020

Section 3
CROSS BORDER AND TRADE DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES AND TRANSNATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS
2019-20 NWMINEA- WACorTkIVInITNYewREryPORT
Conor Patterson delivering a training session, Berlin, December 2019
German companies which they had met well were hosted by the Irish Ambassador to Germany, Dr Nicholas O’Brien, at the Irish Embassy in Berlin.
At the reception the Ambassador noted “the commitment to promoting transnational business collaboration shown by the cross border partnership of the Meath and Louth counties and Newry Mourne and Down District. It’s through people like you and your international partners that we will grow economic opportunities and prosperity at home”.
The companies who participated were:
Company
Field Motion Kelly Solutions SlackPress Naoimh Larkin Mourne Digital Bluesona
Lara Lavine Ltd
Gausscientific
Match-Fit
Wendevr Ltd
5D Design
Adria Biotech Ltd
Simpitiko Limited
Qualitas Electronics
Ambient Displays Ltd
ECC Design & Engineering Ltd Sixtech
Unicorn Magic Ltd Aquafuel
Project Engineering
Location in the
East Transfrontier Region Newry
Downpatrick
Newry
Newry
Kilkeel
Downpatrick
Warrenpoint
Navan, Co Meath
Navan, Co Meath
Ashbourne, Co Meath
Kells, Co Meath
Dunshaughlin, Co Meath
Ashbourne, Co. Meath
Duleek, Co. Meath
Dundalk, Co. Louth
Jenkinstown, Co. Louth
Drogheda, Co. Louth
Co. Louth
Dundalk, Co. Louth
Ardee, Co. Louth
Between January and March 2020 funding was secured from Newry Mourne & Down Council, Louth County Council and Meath County Council to enable us to continue delivering InnovateAccelerate Europe Programme support to local companies in 2020. The global Covid 19 pandemic meant that trade missions like that in December 2019 could not take place during 2020. In the spring of 2020 we radically overhauled
the programme offer. We targeted the 2020 Programme at
21 food and drink companies providing them with specialist online mentoring and training as well as a bespoke promotional corporate video which was professionally produced for each of them. The plan was to have these platformed online to maximise their international reach. In addition all 21 companies were matched online with prospective EU business partners.
Colin Hanna co-ordinated the delivery of the Programme in Newry, Mourne & Down, Louth and Meath.
3.5 EU GIG Economy Programme
In July 2019 a transnational partnership led by Meath County Council, of which our EU programme division, WIN (EU), was
a part, secured funding from the EU Commission for 3 years
to investigate the implications of the “Gig economy” for local economic development agencies in the European Union. This was a significant decision for us in that it formally confirmed our WIN (EU) division (which is headquartered in Dundalk) as a bona fide delivery agent for EU initiatives. WIN (EU) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Newry and Mourne Co-operative.
Through WIN (EU) we hosted the first meeting of the EU Gig Economy Project partnership at Ghan House in Carlingford on 8th – 10th of October. We had to host the meeting in County Louth because we participated in this European programme under the auspices of WIN (EU), which is based in the Irish Republic. Our task is to produce a training programme to raise awareness of the “Gig Economy” and its implications and to establish an alliance in the Republic to promote initiatives which will help local authorities, employers, workforce representatives, central government and others to adapt their programmes and policies to mitigate the potentially negative effects of the Gig economy and to maximise its positive aspects. In essence the Gig economy is a spectrum.
At one end workers are poorly paid, have few rights and have no financial and therefore life security. Their lives are described as precarious. At the other end of the spectrum there are project workers and freelancers who are self-employed by choice and command higher annual incomes than they would if they were full-time employees. For some businesses the importation of freelance expertise allows them to experiment and ultimately to innovate. There is evidence that this process is an engine for
the creation of entirely new full-time jobs. As the delivery agent for the primary front-line central and local government-funded self-employment promotion initiative in the Newry & Mourne area, the Business Start Programme, these insights will be significant for NMEA. Our project partners in this EU programme which will run until 2022 are Meath County Council, a local authority from northern Spain, an agricultural co-operative from northern Spain, an FE College from the Netherlands, an enterprise agency from the Netherlands, a local authority from the Tuscany region in Italy and a workers co-operative and training organisation also from Tuscany.
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The Irish Ambassador to Germany, Dr Nicholas O’Brien, Joe English Meath CEO, Conor Patterson and Stephen McQuillan Louth LEO