The HiCo Region is the territory of the "HiCo, Hi-tech integrated Co-operation for cross-border economic growth and SME competitiveness increase" project. It covers Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of the most attractive Italian regions, belonging to the well-known North-East, and the Slovenian regions of Goriška, Obalno-kraška and Gorenjska.

The HiCo Region features companies characterized by a deep and rooted working culture and a research system strongly oriented towards knowledge and innovation for the market. This mixture makes the HiCo Region a highly competitive territory focusing on technological innovation, with some local operators acting as driving force to improve the entire production system.

The development of communication routes for the transportation of people and goods within the HiCo region is due to the peculiar geographical position of the cross-border territory, at the centre of the new Europe and close to the borders with Austria and Croatia. The HiCo Region is crossed by routes whose extensions lead to Venice and Milan to the East and to Ljubljana to the West. Also the access to the sea is particularly relevant; it has contributed to characterize industrial and commercial activities in the coastal area.

The HiCo region appears to investors as an area with a natural cross-border drive, overlooking the sea and crossed by commercial relations between the East and the West as well as the North and the South. Characterized by the presence of large companies working in a variety of commodity categories, ranging from production to services, the territory features a thick network of bodies and institutions of basic and applied research, linked to industrial concentration poles and innovation centres such as science and technology parks and innovative clusters.

The HiCo Region is characterized by the presence of many research institutions, five universities and several advanced education institutes. This concentration allowed the activation of synergies, the definition of areas of excellence (such as molecular biomedicine or nanotechnologies), the creation of cooperation networks and partnerships that have soon extended beyond local borders. Furthermore, it attracted scientists and researchers from all over the world. These have found in the international centres of the Region tools for the transfer of scientific culture to their native.

In the HiCo Region there are several industrial development consortia, category associations and chambers of commerce, industry, agriculture and craftmanship, making up the pool of institutions in charge for protecting the interests of enterprises and of people employed in enterprises. They offer information, assistance and advisory services, as well as promotion and strengthening of several sectors.

The HiCo Region offers a system of support for a complete and effective industrial development, especially as regards the most innovative and technologically advanced industries: well-developed industrial structures and infrastructures; established systems of technological transfer and attraction/mobility of talents; research, innovation and advanced training centres; financial support and incentives to investments in technology and innovation; competences in the field of sustainable development; structures supporting partnerships; assistance to internationalisation.

Friuli Venezia Giulia hosts several industrial agglomerations and four industrial clusters ("distretti industriali"), recognized by Regional Law no. 27 dated 11/11/1999. Economies of scale create a remarkable competitive factor. They derive from network relations among specialized companies that clusters ensure in terms of costs, flexibility and competence diffusion.

The HiCo Region territory is particularly attractive and provides several regional, national and EU incentives.

The HiCo Region boasts a high-level quality of life.