Published on:
22
February 2005
Two new project officers will be recruited by the Council's groundbreaking Business Liaison Initiative thanks to a grant of over £100,000 in European funding.
The project officers will be responsible for working with specific business groups, one supporting retail and tourism businesses while the other supports the service and manufacturing industries.
The BLI is a research project managed by the Council in partnership with the local business community. The project is co-chaired by Colin Lynch of Alva firm Blyth Construction Utilities and Council Leader Margaret Paterson.
Councillor Paterson said: "I am delighted that the BLI has secured this European funding. This is a groundbreaking project which should enable the business community to truly influence how the Council, and our other partners, develop and deliver support services for the next decade.
"Some work has already begun on how the Council can support local procurement, and the findings and proposals will be made available through Clacksweb in the spring. The input from the business community and senior Council managers was tremendous. If this is an indicator of how the project will progress I think we will see significant developments in how the public sector supports local business development and also in how the business community is able to influence the delivery of public sector support."
Mr Lynch added: "This initiative has been very well support by the local business community and there is a feeling that we are all pulling together and making improvements on the relationship between the public and private sectors.
"These new posts will provide a personal interface between the business community and public sector and help with the sharing of knowledge, experience and opportunities. Small businesses can find knowing where to start very daunting and these officers should be able to help find solutions and point people in the right direction."
Clackmannanshire Council has received a grant totaling £113,598 from the European ESF Objective 3 Partnership for the project, which will run to 31st December 2006.
Additional funding for the project, over a two year period,has come from:
Clackmannanshire Council £104,414
Clackmannanshire Businesses £104,240
Scottish Enterprise Forth Valley £28,575
The funding from the business community comes by way of the value of the time donated by the business community to help run the project and its activities. In particular a donation of £14,600 has been made by local firm W Osborne and Co which donated its Business Builder System which will be used in setting up the management and administration systems for the project.
The aim of the project is to research and analyse all the ways in which the public sector deliver enterprise support to businesses in Clackmannanshire. The findings will be used to change the way in which the Council and their other private sector partners deliver support and design their Enterprise development initiatives.
Robert Pollock, executive director of Scottish Enterprise Forth Valley, said: "It is important that Clackmannanshire businesses work together to maximise the resources and knowledge available in the community and the BLI will play a critical role in taking this forward.
"SE Forth Valley is committed to working with our partners to ensure the long-term future of initiatives such as the BLI."