- To investigate the processes of technological development in C. Macedonia and to define the strengths and weaknesses of the regional innovation system.
- To ensure an agreement between the principal bodies and agencies of government, the regional firms, the workers organisations, and the universities, on the priorities of technological development in the Region.
- To select projects and actions that sustain the technology and innovation capacity of the regional firms and to investigate their feasibility to be implemented.
- To implement these projects in co-operation with the Structural Funds and to attract funds towards actions sustaining the technology and innovation capability of the Region.
- To establish an Observatory in order to monitor the effects of the Plan and to diffuse information on innovation and development of C. Macedonia.
These orientations declare a clear relation of the Plan to the Community regional policy and the Structural Funds. This concern is not a rigid constraint of the RTP concept, but it comes out of the actual development situation in Greece and C. Macedonia. The process of Economic and Monetary Union and the intense effort of the country to meet the targets of the Maastricht Treaty connects most of the public and private investments to the Structural Funds and the Community Support Framework in particular. The latter has become the dominant tool that drive the selection of projects and initiatives to renew the country's infrastructure and production capacity. In this sense, principal problem in the actual development trajectory is to make a correct use of these resources, to sustain projects with major multiplication effects and to co-ordinate the public and private initiatives for modernisation and growth. This aim towards the Structural Funds is a major political choice of the Plan in C. Macedonia.
Among the preoccupation of the Plan is to develop a system of continuous monitoring and evaluation, capable to indicate adjustments throughout the implementation stage. Previous planning procedures have shown the importance of such correction mechanisms to optimise the effects of interventions. Furthermore, an Observatory constitutes a good tool to diffuse information related to innovation and to enhance the dialogue and the culture of innovation in the Region.
Overall objective of the Plan is to enable regional industry to work at best practice level in the technologies relevant to it, to enhance the emergence and growth of new industrial branches, and to promote international technology co-operation and competitiviness to international markets.
