Opening speech by RCC Secretary General at the second edition of the Regional Butterfly Award ceremony

12 December 2023 | SPEECH

RCC Secretary General Majlinda Bregu opened second edition of the Regional Butterfly Award ceremony together with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria Mariya Gabriel, in Sofia on 12 December 2023.

“Investment in research and Development (R&D) in our region remains quite low - less than 1% of the GDP while in EU the figure is 2.3%. To fulfil the promise of today’s smart machines, policies need to be smart too. As part of the EU's new Growth Plan for the Western Balkans, a regional pre-accelerator focusing on deep-tech will be launched soon. We're delighted to see our efforts bearing fruit. We also aim for a segment of this initiative to support early-stage innovation teams beyond deep-tech," said Bregu among other things.

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