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Clusters in Europe II - Mobilizing Clusters for Competitiveness
Following are the presentations of the first day of the "Clusters in Europe II - Mobilizing Clusters for Competitiveness" conference in order of the programme.
At the II. day of the conference the following topics were discussed in four panel: Industries
Emerging industries fundamentally change the widely-used industrial policy concepts and techniques. It is difficult to define and to statistically measure these industries, and there are not any mature or easy-to-apply policies for their conscious development yet. Clusters tend to arise in these emerging industries, as well. However, traditional industries cannot be withdrawn from the focus of economic policy because of the number of employees and their share from GDP, among others. Cluster management
Successful clusters cannot work without professional cluster management organisations. Effectively operating cluster management organisations can catalyse the activities of cluster members and so they can increase the competitiveness of the cluster. Regional development and cluster development
Competitiveness of European regions can be substantially influenced by the effectiveness of clusters operating in the region. In its early stages basically each cluster has strong territorial affection, so the interaction between regional development policies and development of clusters may be interesting. However, ‘world class clusters' of the EU will most probably be clusters reaching beyond statistical regions. It is still to be answered who will consider these cluster ‘as their own' and in what way they will be willing to assist and support these, should such a support be necessary at all... Visegrad Four Countries
The declaration of collaboration of the four countries of Visegrad in 1991 resulted in many significant achievements (e.g. society, trade-policy, Euro-atlantic integration, defence policy). The current Hungarian presidency places special focus on the harmonisation needs of the clustering processes of the four countries. This is also emphasized in the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the four ministers of economy in November 2009. Winding up the conference
Summary report from Industry section - Professor Vassilios MAKIOS Section Chair |
The Hungarian Pole Programme Office, after the success of last year’s Cluster Conference, organized a two-day-long international conference again. The conference discussed the European cluster development practice and gave a worldwide overview, as well. The main objective of the conference was to share the different local challenges and responses of the national cluster policies regarding the economic crisis. In addition to the representatives of the European Commission, speakers from the following countries shared their experience: UK, Germany, Czech Republic, China, Greece, Japan, Russian Federation among others.