A great guide to developing an LED Strategy

This world bank site give a great guide to developing a LED Strategy

http://www.worldbank.org/urban/led/step_two.html

To develop a LED strategy, the community must be fully informed about their own town or city, their own region and their national economy. Conducting a local economy assessment involves collecting strategically important information and then analyzing it strategically. Some useful types of information are:
* Demographic information, i.e., information about the people in the community, what they need and what they are capable of.
* Economic information. This information will provide an understanding of the local economy.
* Investment climate information. This will inform on how the local government treats its business community.
* Hard Infrastructure information. This will inform about the status of water, electricity and wastewater provision. The focus should be on economic areas.
* Regional and National information, to gather information on what is happening in other areas that impact on the community.

One of the best Econ Dev Feeds

One of the best Economic Development Feeds I have seen is at
www.don-iannone.com/edfutures
don has done a great job and was one of the first to offer an RSS feed

May I recommend you to his site..

The Targeting Social Need & Gross Value Added? a Paradox – poles apart?

A presentation to the Policy Innovation Unit of DETINI
Wed 24th Nov. 2004
Nick Rogers MSc. North Down BC. nick.rogers@northdown.gov.uk
The policy paradox described
• The dilemma of Targeting Social Need and in yet also achieving above average growth in Gross Value Added to help catch up with the rest of GB
• Could a policy encouraging the direct involvement of the local knowledge based (KB) sectors within the supply chain of the public sector investment stream help retain significant GVA in the local economy?
• Could the same policy generate new enterprise spin off and accelerate enterprise growth?

A critical appraisal of the proposal
• Would the local KB sector respond to the opportunity?
• Would it be a ‘one time’ benefit - or could the partners use the knowledge to create new knowledge based tradable services?
• Would the policy ‘muddy’ the procurement process? i.e. split responsibilities – added costs etc. hence be politically unacceptable..

An analogy in Great Britain
• OGC & DTI are considering how projects based on innovative speculative proposals could be procured via single sourcing whilst still retaining best value and value for money
• Possible emphasis on ‘most economically advantageous terms’ as a criteria for local involvement (EU procurement rules permitting)

Atkinson Review – Measurement of Government Output and Productivity
• …government output represents a sizeable part of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In broad terms, a one per cent per year faster growth rate of government output raises the overall GDP growth rate by some 0.2 per cent.
Source: Atkinson Review-Interim Report July 2004

So what might we do now?
• Are the potential benefits a mirage in economic terms? – lets check it out!
• Identify any international examples of a similar approach – Europe & further afield
• Develop a pilot project proposal – who with and how funded? DENI?

I would welcome any comments on this topic.. in particular has anyone has tried it?

Industrial and Regional Clusters: Concepts and Comparative Applications

If you ever wondered about Clusters and how they work have a look at this site

http://www.rri.wvu.edu/WebBook/Bergman-Feser/contents.htm

Mapping of Census Workplace Population

The 2001 Census Tables for Workforce Population provide a valuable insight into the actual local workforce without being skewed by where people live.. this is the true 'gold standard' baseline data for development planning.. however it is only available every ten years..

The tables and the ability to map them may be found at http://www.nicensus2001.gov.uk/nica/thematicmapping/thematicmap.jsp