Businesses in South Eastern Europe should be more strongly engaged in trans-national development projects, Regional Co-operation Council (RCC) secretary-general Hido Biscevic said at a meeting in Istanbul on October 30 2008.

The Regional Co-operation Council is the successor to the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe.

At a meeting of the Business Advisory Council for South Eastern Europe, a body made up of 35 leading business people from more than 20 countries in the region, Biscevic drew attention to the European Union's Multi-beneficiary Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) Programme, aimed at supporting such projects.

He also briefed the meeting on a co-operation mechanism among the RCC, its SEE members, the European Commission (EC) and international financial institutions in preparing and implementing joint multinational regional projects.

Biscevic briefed the business people on RCC priorities and projects the organisation is preparing with international partners, including the establishment of a South East Europe Regional Fire-Fighting Centre and a Southeastern-Central Europe Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility, as well as a project to promote sustainable use and integrated management of the region's inland waterways.

"BAC members expressed full readiness to contribute to increasing business opportunities in South Eastern Europe by working with the RCC," according to an RCC media statement.

A follow-up meeting between RCC Secretariat and BAC representatives to discuss this future cooperation will be held later this year.

The BAC meeting focused on issues of free trade, public-private partnership, competitiveness and infrastructure development in South Eastern Europe, the media statement said.