With co-funding from the PHARE CBC programme, the Vas County Chamber of Commerce and Industry implemented two tourism projects between 2004 and 2006 as part of which the Chamber issued the information brochures ‘Ideas for Holidays and Trips from the Alps to the Hungarian Steppe ‘Puszta’ and ‘Tourist Programmes in the Western Pannonian Region’. The brochures covered the tourism offer in Lower Austria, Burgenland and Western Hungary. The Chamber also organised relevant tourism events relating to the brochures in both projects.

With co-funding from the PHARE CBC Small Project Fund, the Chamber organised altogether 17 events in 2002 and 2003 as part of the series ‘Partnership for the Entrepreneurs’ to strengthen cross-border relations towards Austria and to help enterprises prepare for EU accession. The objective of the project was to contribute to fostering the economy in the areas bordering Austria, to explore opportunities for cooperation and to expand cross-border economic relations.

In 2006 and 2007 the Chamber is implementing its project ‘Good Neighbours—Hungarian-Slovenian Cross-border Tourism Programmes’ as part of the INTERREG III A Community Initiative. As part of the project the Chamber is issuing a brochure with tourist offers from counties Vas and Zala as well as from the regions Mura and Celje, and is organising relevant tourism events relating to the brochure to provide the service providers in the tourism industry with an opportunity to establish relations, cooperate and develop even further. The brochure is printed in 15.000 copies (Hungarian—Slovenian and German—English versions are also available) to provide information on the tourist offer of the service providers in both areas.

Supported by the Ministry for Economic Affairs and Transport, the Chamber launched its project ‘Let’s get ready for EU accession together’ in 2003. The general objective of the project was to help micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in County Vas ready themselves for EU accession, to help them operate successfully in the Single European Market, and to help enterprises meet EU standards and requirements. The specific objective of the project was to provide intensive training for 240 enterprises to help them prepare for Hungary’s EU accession, and to provide businesses with a series of information brochures, which contained Hungarian-German word lists to facilitate partnerships and cooperation.