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DYTIKI MAKEDONIA
GEOGRAPHY AND DEMOGRAPHY
Western Macedonia occupies the north-western part of Greece. It is bounded by Albania, the FYROM, Central Macedonia, Thessaly and Epirus, and comprises the nomí of Kozani, Florina, Kastoria and Grevena. It covers an area of 9 452 km2, with a population of 302.000 inhabitants and a density of 32 inhabitants per square kilometre. The regional capital is the town of Kozani and other important urban centres include Kastoria, Ptolemaida, Florina and Grevena.
INFRASTRUCTURE
The Egnatia motorway that crosses the Region, along with its two vertical National Roads, forms a network that dramatically improves the transport conditions in the Region and alter its traditional “isolation” image, mainly due to its mountainous landscape. On the other hand, the railroad network is insufficient and the two airports (Kozani and Kastoria) can only serve small passenger planes.
ECONOMY
The region GDP is 7.700 (Mill. Euros), with a GDP per capita of 10,4 (in K EUR).The Region has one operational Industrial Area in Florina and another one under construction in Kozani. The secondary sector is very important for the Regional economy, mainly due to the mining activities, the production of electric power (70% of country's total power is produced in the Region) and the fur-leather sector .

The private sector, on the other hand, is characterized by a wealth of very small businesses, which have limited vertical integration, lack modern technology and skilled labour and have high operating costs. Fur production used to be one of the region's main manufacturing activities.
LABOUR MARKET
The region employment rate is 41,2% (male 59,1% and female 34,2%) of the total labour force and the unemployment rate reaches 10,7%. The sectoral employment distribution is: 40,9% in services, 17,60 in industry and 41,50 in agriculture.
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Dytiki Makedonia accounted for less than 3% of Greek expenditure on research and development. About 51% of the research and development expenditures came from the higher education sector, 35% from the government sector and 14% from the business enterprise sector. The total research spending in the region is 0,7% of its GDP ( 0,01% public sector, 0,15% government, 0,34% university, 0,20% private sector).
DATA RELATED TO REGIONAL STRUCTURAL FUNDS MECHANISMS
The region belongs to EU objective 1, for the period 2000-2006, granting in that period 684 billions euros.
REGIONAL PROGRAMME OF INNOVATIVE ACTIONS (RPIA)
There is a regional programme of innovative actions “Knowledge clusters in West Macedonia” (Kclusters). The main objective of “k-clusters” is to provide added-value services for the formulation of innovative actions based on :
Thematic knowledge building and creation of technology poles;
Exploration of innovation issues within the thematic areas;
Support collective entrepreneurship effort in the regional public - private collaboration providing horizontal support in the innovation process;
Initiate pilot actions that will be the “quick-wins” for enhancing the innovation spirit in Western Macedonia.

The establishment of regional and “k-cluster” cooperation was achieved with the implementation of supporting measures that signify the importance of the collective effort in achieving the objectives of the programme and contain the following actions :

  • Virtual technopolis: playing the role of an electronic support unit to all clustering efforts.

  • Roadmap to networking for innovation management: providing the necessary tools and methods enhancing the regional innovation capacity and the networking interoperability.

  • Regional enterprise benchmarking: endorsing the competitive spirit by promoting on-line business benchmarking.

  • Regional innovation observatory: creating integrated and multidisciplinary knowledge concerning innovative actions, approaches and technologies.

  • Cluster learning Center: servicing horizontally the e-clusters in business development issues such as business planning and marketing of innovation through specialized consulting in each business unit and the e-cluster as a whole.

  • Support unit for attracting third party financing: overseeing all the financial planning strategies of the clusters in order to minimize risks and advance the high performance themes of the clusters.