Weitzenegger's Regional Economic Development Report

The Role of Mass Media in Local and Regional Economic Development
http://www2.gtz.de/wbf/doc/MassMediainLRED.pdf
This paper has been prepared by GTZ’s Employment-oriented Private Sector Development Programme (EoPSD) in Abuja Nigeria as a result of work that it has embarked on in media development and local economic development. This work has built on similar work in other parts of Africa and focuses on developing radio programmes on business and local economic issues. EoPSD has supported the launch of two local programmes focused on the local economic issues of two northern states in Nigeria (Nasarawa and Niger States) and is in the process of supporting a third station to develop business programming. This has provided EoPSD with a working insight into the potential role of mass media in supporting local economic development initiatives.

Local Economic Development Strategic Planning and Practice Casebook
http://tinyurl.com/6n25wc
As a practical product of the World Bank program, this LED Strategic Planning and Practice Casebook seeks to help the reader understand municipal approaches to LED strategic planning by identifying good practice in strategic planning methodology. The Casebook serves as a collection of six local economic development strategies that provide examples of good practice from across Europe and from the Cities of Change network. The Casebook also contains good practice notes and comments.

Clusters, Functional Regions and Cluster Policies
http://www.insme.info/documenti/Cluster&ClusterPolicies.pdf
This INSME paper by Charlie Karlssongives an overview of research on economic clusters and clustering and is motivated by the growing intellectual and political interest for the subject. Functional regions have the features that agglomeration of economic activities i.e. clusters, benefit from. Functional regions have low intra-regional transaction and transportation cost and has access to the local labour market. The features of spatial economic concentration were for a long time disregarded. The scientific interests of cluster and clustering phenomenon have after the ''new” introduction rapidly increased in the last decade. Hence, the subject is being thought at various education levels. The importance of cluster and clustering has also been recognized at a national, regional and local level and cluster policies are becoming a major part of political thinking. These policies are however often based on a scarce analysis where no strict criterions are statet.

Développement Economique Local et Régional
http://www2.gtz.de/wbf/doc/LREDframeworkfr.pdf
Ce manuel de la GTZ des praticiens du LRED est basé sur l'expérience récente de la GTZ dans l’appui au Développement Économique Local et Régional (LRED) en Afrique du Sud.

Innovation and Export of Vietnam’s SME Sector
http://tinyurl.com/6x59sx
In this paper, the authors investigate how the firms’ export behavior depends on their innovation activities, or whether the more innovative firms are more likely to export. The authors find that innovation as measured directly by ‘new products’, ‘new production process’ and ‘improvement of existing products’ are important determinants of exports by Vietnamese SMEs.

Local Economic Development Strategic Planning and Practice Casebook
http://tinyurl.com/6n25wc
In 1999 World Bank and Bertelsmann Foundation started a Cities of Change program in Central and Eastern Europe, the Baltics and Balkans to reduce unemployment and poverty. As a result the local economic development cluster emerged. The Cities of Change program aimed to help the LED cluster cities to design and implement their own LED strategies. A core task of the program was to develop practical knowledge products that could be used by municipal governments and communities to understand, design and implement integrated LED strategic planning. As a practical product of the program, this LED Strategic Planning and Practice Casebook seeks to help the reader understand municipal approaches to LED strategic planning by identifying good practice in strategic planning methodology. The Casebook serves as a collection of six local economic development strategies that provide examples of good practice from across Europe and from the Cities of Change network. The Casebook also contains good practice notes and comments.

VISION Era-Net Portal for Innovation Policy Publications
This portal is a unique collection of publications related to innovation policy. The Innovation Policy Portal provides a valuable source and unique of information for both practitioners and researchers alike. The database consists of over 50 research reports, white papers, and policy documents from the world-leading researchers on the most advanced countries in the innovation policy.
http://www.visioneranet.org/?84m=222&s=10

Entrepreneurship and Urban Success: Toward a Policy Consensus
http://www.kauffman.org/pdf/statelocalroadmap022608.pdf
This essay provides a guide to policymakers and citizens to what is known about the effects of various local and state policies aimed at fostering entrepreneurially driven growth

MERIPA Toolbox. A booklet for regional innovation policy makers
http://www.meripa.org/download/meripatoolbox.pdf
This booklet is structured in accordance with the four main phases of the policy-making process: Start-up, Design, Implementation and Review. Each phase contains a number of chapters, each of which deals with a specific tool or set of instructions for a distinct part of the process.

Growth, Innovation and Policy (GIPOL)
http://survey.nifustep.no/gipol/
GIPOL is a collaboration project between NIFU STEP, Norwegian School of Management, University of Agder and University of Lund. It is financed by the Norwegian Research Council and lasts from 2007 until 2010. The main aim of the project is to analyze modes of innovation and knowledge networks in order to develop an analytical framework adapted to the increasing globalization of the economy.

Vice President Verheugen launches Enterprise Europe Network
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise-europe-network
European Commission Vice President Gunter Verheugen launched Enterprise Europe Network, a new and powerful European support network for enterprises. All major players of the business support community in Europe have united to offer a one-stop service to assist especially small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to develop their full potential and innovative capacity. With more than 500 contact points and almost 4,000 experienced staff, Enterprise Europe Network is the largest network in Europe providing expertise and services for business. These are available to companies of all sizes irrespective of whether they are in manufacturing or services, although they are primarily directed at small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

Cluster Management – A Practical Guide. Part A: Overview.
http://www2.gtz.de/dokumente/bib/07-1496.pdf
Cluster Management – A Practical Guide. Part B: Tools
http://www2.gtz.de/dokumente/bib/07-1498.pdf
This GTZ-manual provides an encompassing and concise overview of methods and instruments of cluster management. It was developed in Croatia commissioned by the GTZ and financed by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). It is, however, not only applicable to Croatia and to other transformation countries, but by all means suitable for a worldwide use. In addition to being useful for cluster management as such, it can also be applied to other forms of enterprise cooperation which go beyond pure supplier-buyer-relationships.
German version: Überblick: http://www2.gtz.de/dokumente/bib/07-1492.pdf, Tools: http://www2.gtz.de/dokumente/bib/07-1494.pdf

Better Access to Growth: Mainstreaming Gender in Cluster Development
http://www.unido.org/file-storage/download/?file%5fid=79018
Traditionally the Cluster Development Programme of UNIDO focuses on assisting underperforming clusters and enhancing their competitivness in a context of market liberalisation and rapid technological change. Past interventions have shown that strengthening cluster competitivness is necessary but not sufficient to reduce poverty. This paper shows how integrating a gender perspective within technical cooperation projects can enhance pro-poor effects of cluster development.

Promoting local economic development in a war-affected country
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/skills/training/publ/pub10.htm
This paper on the ILO experience in Cambodia analyses the ''Small Enterprise and Informal Sector Promotion'' project, implemented in Cambodia (1992 - 1995) to raise the living standards of disadvantaged, war affected, population. Its strategy was the promotion of local economic development by providing financial and non financial services to small scale and private economic activities. The organizations set up for service delivery were the Local Economic Development Agencies (LEDAs) which assisted thousands of small and micro enterprises with a significant effect on incomes and employment. The achievements are presented in terms of impact, cost-effectiveness and sustainability with a summary of lessons learned.

Targeting Regional Economic Development:
An Outline of a National Extension Educational Program
http://www.nercrd.psu.edu/publications/rdppapers/rdp38.pdf
A national network of university researchers and extension specialists is working together to develop a collection of educational materials on targeted regional economic development (TRED). Building on the notion of Michael Porter's cluster development a collection of tools and educational processes is outlined.

Financial Management for Local Governments
http://www.citiesalliance.org/publications/newsletters/oct-07/oct-07-events-pub-sec.html#habitat-award
The Financial Management for Local Governments series is designed to cover all aspects of sound financial management for local governments in developed and developing countries and economies in transition.

Innovative Practices for Connecting Small-scale Producers with Local and Regional Markets
http://www.regoverningmarkets.org/en/global/aboutregoverningmarkets.html
Rapid changes are taking place in agri-food markets in middle and low-income countries and small-scale agriculture, which supports the livelihoods of the majority of rural poor, is poorly prepared for these changes. These 8 case studies, which were conducted as part of the Regoverning Markets Programme, provide examples of innovative practices in connecting small-scale producers with dynamic markets at local or regional level. Based on significant fieldwork activities, the case studies provide examples of market links between small-scale producers and dynamic markets, focusing on four drivers of innovation: public policy principles, private business models, collective action strategies by small-scale farmers, and intervention strategies and methods of development agencies. The studies highlight policy lessons and suggest working methods to guide public and private actors.

Developing Economies Locally Through Action and Alliance (DELTA)
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTLED/Resources/339650-1122490529659/DELTAEvaluation.pdf
The World Bank's DELTA program (Developing Enterprises Locally through Alliance and Action) focuses on building institutions within municipal governments and exploiting private sector resources that can foster and support policy reform for private sector development. The World Bank Group Small and Medium Enterprise Department, together with Open Society Institute Local Government and Public Sector Reform Initiative (OSI/LGI), has piloted this program with the goal of addressing institutional and policy reforms at the local level. The program was developed in great part using the best practices of the OECD from countries in which OECD had engaged in Strategic Planning for Local Economic Development. It was also based partially on several World Bank LED projects across Eastern Europe.

Innovation clusters: A statistical analysis and overview of current policy support
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newsroom/cf/document.cfm?action=display&docid=559
Clusters can be powerful engines of regional economic development and drivers of innovation. They enable companies to integrate in clusters where they can collaborate with and learn from research institutions, suppliers, customers and competitors. The Cluster Report published by Directorate General Enterprise and Industry offers an overview of the main statistical findings obtained so far by the European Cluster Observatory. The Report also describes the main Community instruments in support of cluster development giving particular emphasis on the aspects of trans-national cooperation.

ICT and Local Economic Development
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/businessenvironment/rc/filedownload.do?itemId=1113812
ICT and Business development will be influenced by the extent to which people have access to ICT as clients, employees and citizens. Development may also influenced by the municipal approach to stimulating local economic growth. Without a critical mass of empowered users, the impact of ICT to stimulate local eco-nomic development will be limited. Similarly, training programmes to help SMEs access the market by the creative use of ICT will fail if many potential clients are on the wrong side of the digital divide.

Donor Approaches to Local Economic Development in Africa
http://www.mesopartner.com/publications/mp-wp12LEDinAfrica.pdf
Doug Hindson compares in this paper five approaches to Local Economic Development (LED) that are currently being applied in Africa. These are the World Bank (WB), Local Economy (ECOLOC), International Labour Office (ILO), GTZ and UN-Habitat approaches. (...) By contrasting different features of these approaches and assessing them against the challenges that LED faces on the continent, I hope to open a discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of pursuing LED in these different ways. The paper is intended mainly for LED practitioners and decision-makers in government and business seeking support for LED promotion.

Cities in the Knowledge Economy: New Governance Challenges - Final report
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/businessenvironment/rc/filedownload.do?itemId=1113346
The report argues that cities must be recognised as key players in the knowledge economy, encouraging entrepreneurship and avoiding social polarisation. To capitalise on local strengths, cities need to improve the links between research infrastructure and business and between education and the needs of the local economy. The report considers strategies for different types of cities.

Who's in First? A Regional Development Index for the PRC's Provinces
http://www.adbi.org/discussion-paper/2007/05/25/2251.prc.regional.development/
This ADB paper offers an index system that provides clear information on the relative position of each province in the People's Republic of China in different fields of development. The index assesses achievements using ten field indices, which constitute an overall regional development index; among them are infrastructure, environmental protection, economic development, and social equity.

Local and Regional Economic Development in Leyte Province:
http://www.smedsep.ph/Download/SMEDSEP%20LRED%20TOT2%20Report%20Speit%20May06.pdf
Report on the Action Planning 2006 / Training of Trainers II for LRED-Facilitators Mission, by Rolf Speit / GTZ, Small and Medium Enterprise Development for Sustainable Employment Programm (SMEDSEP)

Making Local Economic Development Strategies: A Trainer’s Manual
http://www.worldbank.org/urban/local/toolkit/pages/home.htm
The Trainer’s Guide to Manual outlines the core trainer competences, approach and requirements necessary to successfully deliver the LED training program. The five teaching modules that follow comprise the training program and provide a structured approach to learning, reflecting the five stage approach to LED strategic planning. Each module is accompanied by a supporting series of PowerPoint slides, exercises, templates and supplementary learning materials. Product of the World Bank and Cities of Change Initiative, and was produced in conjunction with the Bertelsmann Foundation.

The Local Business Environment and Local Economic Development: Comparing Approaches
http://www.mesopartner.com/publications/mp-wp11Local-BE.pdf
Doug Hindson, Joerg Meyer-Stamer / Mesopartner 2007 / Global, -
From the LED perspective, a favourable business environment involves a broad set of locational factors which is only partly shaped by government. While BE interventions have a tendency to be top-down and to depend on external consultants, the LED approach emphasises bottom-up processes and a strong involvement of local actors. A consistent effort to reduce red tape and improve the local regulatory environment is an important element of bottom-up LED processes. In fact, an argument can be made that efforts to improve the business environment will have a stronger impact in already strong locations, so that it can ultimately widen the gap between growing and lagging locations and thus reinforce spatial disparities.

Cluster Management Guide – Guidelines for the Development and Management of Cluster Initiatives
http://www.clusterforum.org/media/CLOEClusterguide.pdf
cloe - Clusters Linked over Europe 2006. Globalisation has a significant impact on the development of industries and regions and their competitiveness. The present document takes a step forward and offers - based on the experience of successful cluster initiatives - a practical handbook giving an overview of essential tasks which are to be undertaken or at least considered within the scope of cluster building processes and their management. This practical handbook is designed to help regional actors, cluster and project managers and their supporting staff to develop and manage cluster activities in a proper and successful way.

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