Cross-Border Cooperation in Southeastern Europe: The Enterprises's Point of View

This paper examines the current status, the limits, the prospects and the policies of cross-border cooperation in the border zone of Albania, Bulgaria, FYROM and Greece, on the basis of a survey with a sample of 291 manufacturing firms located near the borders in all four countries. The analysis suggests that border region firms may have a higher level of interaction than the respective average national firms in all countries and that trade relations and economic cooperation eventually depend on the level of specialization and the size of the markets. It also suggests that barriers to cooperation mater and can affect negatively the performance of border region firms. Overall, firms are less concerned about the quality of infrastructure and more concerned about the general or the Пnancial conditions prevailing in each country, indicating that the best policy of cross-border cooperation, besides infrastructure, may be the development of the economies in the region and the improvements in their economic environment.