Due to technological changes, demographic challenges and the need for speedy digitalisation, cooperation is becoming increasingly important, especially within smaller regions. To develop strengths and obtain visibility, regions need to open up, search for partners and, in many cases, initiate trans-regional cooperation. The relationships within the Alpe-Adria region have grown historically and make an ideal basis for cross-border economic initiatives of this sort.
The trans-national EU programmes provide concrete tools for discovering content-related synergies and nourishing and developing a culture based on cooperation. Numerous companies, educational and public-sector institutions have shaped the joint development of the Alpe-Adria region as an economic and living environment in recent years.
There has been a surge in economic and research cooperations and projects between Carinthia, Slovenia, Friuli-Venezia-Giulia, South Tyrol and the Veneto, all of which have raised awareness for the fact that only a joint Alpe-Adria economic area can ensure lasting success on the European as well as the global market. The clear goal is therefore to expand and strengthen this economic area further in the long term.