The main goal of the Public4MSME+ project concerns on ensuring supportive conditions for strengthening micro, small and medium-sized enterprises [MSME] in urban areas during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, as well in the phase of economic recovery. The consequences of the pandemic crisis are complex and already affects the world by price increases, broken production chains, a huge lack of resources, etc. Registering deepening crisis in many branches leads to the need of applying new consumption models and adapting the processes to different public restrictions. Despite national governments actions to mitigate the negative effects, multiple public institutions at regional and local levels must be involved and support the companies in a downturn. In this context public resources at the local level acquires a special value becoming suitable leverage for business development in the framework of SHARING ECONOMY MODEL to support MSME.

Public4SMEs+ project (February 2022  – July 2023) is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungrary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund (IVF). The project is leaded by the Mazovia Development Agency Plc., in a consortium of organisations from Ukraine  – NGO Agency of European Innovations, Moldova – Solidarity Fund PL in Moldova, Slovakia – Center for innovation partnerships, Hungary – HETFA Research Institute Ltd. The main organiser of the event is Solidarity Fund PL in Moldova.

The project is a logical continuation of the project co-financed by IVF during October 2020 – March 2021 (www.public4sme.eu). The research conducted within the first phase had shown that the national programs and actions in supporting small and medium business are limited or even closed. Based on the new reality, smaller solutions are seeking at the local level that can be explored and then scaled. On the basis of the local experiences from urban areas of the V4 & EaP region studied as best practices within the first phase of the research, the project continues the process of creating new knowledge and tools for local partnerships (public authorities and MSMEs).

Based on local research in each partner country the Sharing Box was developed as the first product within the Public4SMEs+ project – a dedicated set of tools, providing solutions to check the cities’ readiness and availability to share public infrastructure with SME as well as on how public institutions can share their resources. It includes Sharing Box Manual, dedicated Quick Look IT tool and list of more than 80 ideas, how public institutions can share their resources with small and medium companies.

The project activities also include a pilot action. The developed Sharing BOX will be tested in the fullest possible functionality (with local ideas chosen from Sharing BOX), during Pilot Actions in 6 cities. We intend to test knowledge collected and obtain a final report from Pilot Actions with information regarding three aspects:

1. functionality on a local level,

2. implementation mechanisms/processes,

3. policy creation potential.

In the end an online seminar is planned to be organised that will aim at concluding the Public4SMEs+ project activities, with a focus on sharing outcomes and the main conclusions, being also a networking event and creating a regional communication platform regarding the Sharing Economy philosophy.