On June 16, 2022, after a year, representatives of the member companies of the Slovak Plastics Cluster (SPK) met again in Hotel Mikádo in Nitra, Slovakia to evaluate the year 2021 and the first half of 2022, also to recall the milestones achieved by the cluster in past 13 years and to outline the upcoming six months in 2022.

As usual, the meeting of the SPK general assembly was not only a formalized meeting but created also an opportunity to point out the present and future functioning of the SPK. It was the response of the members to the very critical issues of the increasing input costs of plastic companies (energy and materials).

More than 36 SPK representatives and guests who accepted the invitation developed discussions that can move the members of the cluster further and thus create a background for very interesting activities. In this way, member companies can get one step ahead of non-member companies. The conference was full of challenges and ideas. The SPK Project manager, Mgr. Veronika Doležalová, presented the SPK project initiatives, including 3 European projects, EXTRATEX, PERCY, EPIC, and one national, InCluNet.

The project PERCY (COS-CLUSINT-2019-3-01- INTERNATIONAL CLUSTER COOPERATION FOR RECYCLING OF POLYMERS) was presented to the audience with its main goals, initiatives and missions realized.

The project manager reminded the research done by Percy project cluster members during the year 2021 with an outcome of identifying new target markets outside Europe being of interest for the four project European clusters (located in Denmark, France, Germany, and Slovakia) and their member companies within the internationalization strategy.

The presentation was followed by presenting missions in detail from 2022 – first the mission to INDIA (April 2022), and the mission to Canada (May 2022), where SPK and project representatives took an active part.

Very interesting mission presentations were done by two SPK representatives who were sent to international negotiations, Richard Tekeľ, MSc. presenting India and Ing. Ján Václav regarding Canada.

Signing the Memorandum of Understanding; which is an important landmark of SPK and the whole PERCY consortium in developing cooperation with non-EU countries; provides real opportunities for member companies in the field of export and future cooperation.

(5th August 2022)