Economic development: balancing national and local agendas
Successfully nurturing competitiveness requires a tight integration of macro and micro policies. In today’s world of globalisation and localisation, upgrading the quality of the local environment, the micro agenda, is meriting increasing attention.  | | Ifor from Cluster Navigators with Mr. Anssi Paasivirta, State Secretary of Ministry of Trade and Industry, Helsinki, Finland |
As Professor Michael E Porter has observed, clusters are the building blocks of a modern economy. Such clusters have an important geographic dimension to them. Taken together, a number of local clusters can be viewed as the local innovation system; linking such local systems leads to the national innovation system.
Cluster development is more a bottom-up approach than a top-down, and as such is more closely related to the realities and needs of a community.
Which national agency should take the lead?
Usually the national economic development agency takes the lead with cluster development, but there are a number of exceptions. In some countries agencies with prime responsibility for technology, investment attraction, SME development, export development, rural development, job creation, or poverty alleviation, are taking the lead. In at least two countries, the lead is being taken by universities.
What is the role of a national agency in cluster development? Many national agencies provide momentum and support to clustering interventions that are delivered at the local level. This includes financially supporting the resourcing of local cluster facilitators, their ongoing training and development, and project support. National agencies also have a role to play in building alignment between publicly funded organisations, ensuring whole-of-government support for a cluster. Garnering alignment between a diverse range of national agencies covering R&D, training, export development, trade access, and at times the physical infrastructure (roads, airports, industry parks ) is no mean feat. National agencies, and Ministers, also have an important role to play in encouraging a collaborative mindset, summarised as ‘Collaborating to Compete’. National agencies should ensure multi-region support where cluster boundaries are not aligned with regional boundaries. Should a national agency prioritise local clusters for development? No! Prioritisation requires local inputs, not the least of which is judgment on the energy and commitment of the private sector within a cluster to collaboratively engage.
National agencies can usefully undertake statistical analysis to highlight local concentrations of economic activity. But such analysis needs to be tempered with local knowledge. Location quotients can identify a local concentration of engineering firms; local knowledge may be needed to highlight the specific capability, the local specialisation. It is this specialisation that should be the focus for the collaborative agenda. What is Cluster Navigators’ experience with national agencies?
Cluster Navigators have worked with a wide range of national development agencies, including Scottish Enterprise; Welsh Development Agency; VINNOVA and Nutek in Sweden; Innovation Norway, Tekes in Finland; Iceland’s Ministry of Commerce; AusIndustry in Australia; Industry Canada; and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise.
How can Cluster Navigators support a national agency? Our capabilities centre on designing and introducing a clustering intervention; workshops with related national agencies to establish their role; media briefings; training and empowering the local facilitators; supporting them at key workshops and in continually upgrading the strategic agenda; garnering whole-of-government alignment to support a cluster; and in reviewing and auditing cluster programmes.
How might we help you?
Please, contact us for further information about how our servicies can be applied to your particular needs. |
