Competitive Regional Clusters
National Policy Approaches

In today’s globalising world, the regional specialisations built up over decades are transforming rapidly. Many regions that were historically production centres in a given sector are losing out to lower-cost locations and reorienting to higher value-added niches. National programmes to promote cluster-based approaches -- linking firms, people and knowledge at a regional level -- are being used to meet the challenge. This report analyses the objectives, targeting, instruments and inter-governmental role sharing used by 26 programmes in 14 OECD countries. It will be of interest to policy makers, researchers, firms and others active in promoting innovation and competitiveness.
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Sweden
This case study for Sweden discusses three programmes developed at the national level. VINNVÄXT is the leading programme of VINNOVA, the Innovation Agency, to support collaborative research with a strong potential for innovation. Visanu is a joint programme across three Swedish agencies to engage actors and promote knowledge sharing across clusters. The latest programme, sponsored by Nutek, the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth, is the Regional Cluster programme for clusters seeking to increase their international competitiveness.
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