Below you can find a selection of projects that DEVELOPMENT Solutions is currently implementing.
For more information on each project, please follow the links to the project websites, where available.
The China and Latin-America IP SME Helpdesks
The China and Latin-America IP SME Helpdesks are European Union co-funded projects that provide European SMEs with free, practical, business advice relating to IPR in China (including Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan) and South-East Asia (including the 10 ASEAN countries). To learn about any aspect of intellectual property rights in China or South-East Asia, including protecting your copyrights in the creative sector, visit our online portal at www.ipr-hub.eu/.
For free expert advice on China and South-East Asia IPR for your business, e-mail your questions to question@china-iprhelpdesk.eu. You will receive a reply from one of the Helpdesk experts within three working days.
FPI Policy Support Facility Lot 4 FWC: Market Access and Trade & Investment Agreement Negotiation & Implementation.
The objective of the support facility is to provide short term expertise which can be mobilised at short notice to carry out assignments such as technical assistance (feasibility studies, technical reports, baseline and benchmarking relevant for the policy dialogues), as well as training and evaluation missions in the field of trade. The objectives are amongst others to:
- Increase business and trading opportunities for EU companies in third countries, thus creating economic growth and jobs in Europe.
- Ensure that trade and investment agreements are negotiated based on solid information relating to partner countries’ market and legislation.
- Support market access activities to ensure the removal of trade and investment barriers for EU business.
Under this policy support facility Development Solutions has carried out projects in Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Korea, Japan, China, India, United States, Argentina, Tunisia, Israel, and Iran. An example of a project website can be found here: www.euintheustrade.org
Asia Competition
The Competition Cooperation Project is designed to serve as a platform for dialogue and the exchange of good practices between competition authority officials and experts from the EU and Asia. Participating countries from Asia include China, India, Japan, South Korea and the ASEAN Member States: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam.
The Project is comprised of three types of activities:
- Competition Weeks
- Competition Summer Schools
- EU Visitors Programme
The Competition Cooperation Project will offer the opportunity to discuss all areas of competition law, including: procedures, restrictive agreements, cartels, abuse of dominance, mergers, State Owned Enterprises and State Aid.
Through this Project, DG Competition aims to promote a regulatory level playing field for the mutual benefit of participating countries. The project will run from 2018-2023.
The Competition Cooperation Project builds on the experiences of predecessor programmes such as the EU-China Trade Project II, which ran from 2010-2015. Activities under the EU-China Trade Project supported the Chinese government’s trade and investment reform agenda by working under the EU-China economic and trade dialogues on services, quality infrastructure and technical barriers to trade, agriculture and SPS, customs and cross-cutting issues such as competition and intellectual property rights.
For more information: www.competitioncooperation.eu
Tastes of Europe
The Tastes of Europe campaign is an initiative funded by the European Union Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development to promote European food and beverage products in third countries. Activities range from promotion events, high-level trade visits and communication activities. During 2016, a number of visits have been scheduled for promoting EU Food and Beverages products abroad and facilitating business in the agri-food sector. The current format of trade mission provides up to 45 EU companies per each mission with the possibility to explore business possibilities in strategic markets, through a combination of targeted business facilitation activities. Promotional campaigns are often linked with the visit of the Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development to these target markets.
Examples of previous campaigns:
- September 2014 – Annapoorna World of Food Trade Fair in India
- 2015 – Promotion campaign on Geographical Indications (PDO/PGI) in China
- 8-12 February 2016 – High-Level Mission to Colombia and Mexico
- 16-22 April 2016 – High-Level Mission to China and Japan
- 2-9 November 2016 – High-Level Mission to Vietnam, Singapore, and Indonesia
- 2017 – High-Level Mission to SIAL Canada
- 2018 – High-Level Mission to SIAL Middle-East
- 2019 – High-Level Mission to SIAL China
CETA Market Access
Since the start of 2017, the CETA Programme has focused on enhancing its communications with stakeholders within Europe, in its efforts to support the EU businesses in their journey to the Canadian market in the context of CETA. The CETA Programme will be releasing numerous practical materials designed for Canadian market access, including webinars, sector-specific articles and guides, CETA-related issue reports, and multiple videos of EU business success stories in Canada. Stay tuned for the updates of the CETA Programme as they get underway.
For more information follow the Delegation of the European Union to Canada on Twitter at @EUinCanada and Youtube.
Action on GSP Trade Preferences
The GSP Hub was initiated following the GSP midterm evaluation of 2018 to increase awareness, transparency and engagement of stakeholders with the EU’s GSP (Generalised Scheme of Preferences). It aims at engaging stakeholders to increase the use of GSP, through bringing new EU investment, encouraging European companies to import from the beneficiary countries, and promoting the related international sustainability standards.
The website will facilitate the understanding of the GSP, its activities and key related topics, including explanations related to the EU’s GSP, an events calendar, country information, and relevant links. Furthermore, a tailor-made monitoring database facilitates the dissemination of information and the building of an active feedback mechanism for stakeholders.
Pilot Sectoral New Market Mechanism Project
The Pilot Sectoral New Market Mechanism (NMN), funded by the European Commission – Directorate-General for Climate Action and implemented by DEVELOPMENT Solutions (DS) in partnership with TÜV Rheinland and the Sustainable Development Association (SDA) sets out to build upon recent experiences with carbon markets by moving towards a post-2020 UNFCCC regime. Under our project, we aim to achieve the following objectives:
- Evaluate and assess NMM approaches made by Parties and stakeholders;
- Provide detailed guidance on the technical design and operational element of a functional NMM;
- Promote global low-carbon growth in a cost effective manner, by scaling up the design of NMM and helping developing countries benefit from their future implementation; and
- Prepare selected pilot beneficiary developing countries for the design and implementation of the NMM, and to assist in the development of the NMM during international climate negotiations through hands-on experience gained through pilots.
ETS Summer Universities Projects
The ETS Summer University project, funded by the European Commission – Directorate-General for Climate Action and implemented by contractors Ecologic Institute and DEVELOPMENT Solutions responds to a growing and increasingly differentiated need for improved understanding of emissions trading as an instrument of climate policy in developing countries and emerging economies. It does so by combining different elements:
- ETS Training Courses – In-person courses held under the auspices of the International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP) targeted at participants from around the world
- ETS Online Course – An e-learning platform that offers valuable online tools for knowledge transfer and network building. The online course is intended for all levels of ETS learners and practitioners
Our mission is to provide support to future leaders in order to build the capacity to design and manage emissions trading schemes across the globe.
DG TRADE Framework Contract to Organise Events, Conferences, Seminars and Meetings
DEVELOPMENT Solutions in consortium with MCI Group Brussels and Insight Consulting Brussels as sub-contractor, implemented the Framework Contract to organise events, conferences, seminars, and meeting, in the context of European Trade policy activities. In total, the event coordination team has successfully organised and delivered 76 events for not only DG Trade, but also DG SANTE, DG EMPL, DG ENV, and DG DEVCO. The events have been located in Europe and in other third countries, such as Kenya, Turkey, and China.