The overall objective with the BENCH project is to increase the trade with China as well as inward investments from China for the benefit of trade and industry in the Central Baltic region, and to better take advantage of the business support actors’ established contacts with China. Together the regions in Finland, Sweden and Estonia have a lot more to offer than on their own when it comes to technology and expert knowledge as well as other useful skills interesting for China. The project will focus on improving the business support actors’ regional and cross-border cooperation concerning contacts with China for the benefit of trade and industry. An important task is to facilitate for SMEs to develop business relations with Chinese actors. In this the project primarily will focus on business contacts with the public sector in China as well as business to business; state owned, private or joint ventures. The business opportunities will on one hand focus on cleantech companies and on the other hand on companies in other industries.The main activities of the project are focusing on how to facilitate for SMEs to create business in the Chinese market, to increase Chinese investments in the Central Baltic region, and to jointly develop work methods on how the public sector can support trade and industry in the regions. Thematically work package 1 and 2 focus on the project management and communication. Work package 3 focuses on how the public sector and business support actors can support SMEs in creating business contacts in China, as well as the cooperation within the BENCH regions and between the partners involved. Cleantech companies will be one important sector to focus on. Work package 4 focuses on how to increase Chinese investments in the CBR. The aim is to develop a concrete cooperation between investment promotion organisations in Finland, Sweden and Estonia... ... in order to create joint offerings for the Chinese market. The idea is also that Chinese investments in the BENCH regions will lead to increased business opportunities for CB companies in China through strategic alliances and partnerships. Therefore WP 4 has an obvious connection to WP3. The cleantech sector will be one of the sectors that will be promoted to the Chinese. Work package 5 focuses on the development of the best practice methods to take advantage of Chinese delegation visits in the BENCH regions and the improvement of regional cooperation within and between the regions in order to benefit from established Chinese contacts. The content in WP5 is of great importance as business support actors involved in Chinese visits are handling the initial contacts which might develop into business opportunities. WP5 is therefore a prerequisite for the content in WP3 and 4. Achievements: The BENCH project focused on increasing trade with China as well as inward investment from China for the benefit of the trade and industry in the Central Baltic region. The partners developed joint working methods with regard to how the region can take better advantage of already established contacts and how the public sector can support the trade and industry in that process. The project demonstrated the added value of promoting the region jointly. The BENCH project identified companies that are interested in doing business in China as well as clusters and investment environments. By carrying out surveys, the partners were able to pinpoint opportunities and obstacles in exporting to China. Workshops and seminars were arranged to improve the knowledge and skills of the organisations involved, and training programmes were carried out for companies interested in doing business with China.