Schwerin (dpa/mv) - With a state-wide competition, the three chambers of industry and commerce want to find creative projects to stimulate inner-city trade in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and encourage imitation. As the chambers announced on Wednesday, proposals can now be submitted in the "Successful Old Town" ideas competition. We are looking for new business concepts, interesting start-ups and successful business developments.
The application period runs until April 30th. Then juries determine regional winners. The state prizewinners will be selected from among these groups. A particularly creative "vacancy staging" will then also be honored with a special prize, it said.
"Our aim is to make regional companies better known and to establish new businesses in inner cities," said Matthias Belke, President of the Schwerin Chamber of Commerce and Industry, explaining the purpose of the competition. The preservation of lively and diverse inner cities and local centers with attractive shops is an ongoing task.
In response to the massive trade restrictions in the corona pandemic, the state government launched an emergency program to revitalize inner cities in 2021. Ten million euros from the Corona protection fund were available for this. Campaigns for regional shopping were supported, as well as cabaret projects that lured visitors into the inner cities. However, stationary trade is not only affected by the consequences of the pandemic. Previous business models, for example in the textile and electronics trade, are coming under massive pressure from competition on the Internet.
