Skip to: content | navigation | search & sites services
4 -10 Sept
UNIDOScope 2005 CONTENTS:
 |
Governance in Dynamic City Regions |
|
COMING SOON |
|
OTHER INDUSTRY NEWSLETTERS |
|
Current Feature |
|
PRINT-FRIENDLY VERSIONS of UNIDOScope |
|
UNIDOScope 2004 archive |
Governance In Dynamic City Regions
 |
Over 250 delegates attended a three-day conference in Bangalore India from 13 - 15 July, 2005, to look at The System of Governance In Dynamic City Regions in China; Costa Rica; India; Indonesia; Mexico; South Africa; and South Korea. Initiatives in EU were also presented, as a model for developing countries.
Presentations covered the way the innovation and learning system and the governance structure in the dynamic city regions support the development and growth of the key regional clusters and their participation in international value chains (see download list at bottom of page). They looked at the policy tools and mechanisms used, the actors involved, the strengths and resources on which the industrial process has been built up, the problems faced, and the solutions found. Presenters were also encouraged to discuss approaches taken to manage issues such as social cohesion, immigration, housing, traffic and environmental issues and the distribution of the wealth created within City-Regions.
The Dynamic City Regions Conference, formally the Second International Conference on the Process of Innovation and Learning in Dynamic City Regions, was a joint venture by India's Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion; the Government of the Indian state of Karnataka; the Central Manufacturing Technology Institute (CMTI) of the International Center for Advancement of Manufacturing Technology (ICAMT), the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the Conference of Indian Industry (CII) and UNIDO. The conference programme is available here for viewing or downloading.
The major areas of recommendations of the conference emerged as the Bangalore Declaration, available here for viewing or downloading. The conclusions of the conference on how the governance systems create conditions for industrial development in dynamic city regions is part of the Conference Report available here and on the conference site www.icamt.org/dynamiccityregions/index.asp.
The first UNIDO conference on Dynamic City Regions took place in Shenzhen, China, on 6-9 December 2002. The Shenzhen event focused on the strategies and organization of City-Regions. The major conclusion of that conference was that the successful clusters of City-Regions "follow a catching-up strategy to mobilize existing knowledge, expertise and technology by linking, leveraging and learning". The establishment of links with global production networks, the attraction of FDI, the creation of sound partnerships with large corporations, and the benefits derived from the outsourcing process of developed-country enterprises are at the core of such a strategy to grow by building up local capabilities. The conference also stressed the key importance of the support system, the existence of a favourable tax regime to attract FDI, and the necessity of benefiting from modern infrastructures to boost the emergence and growth of the clusters leading the performance of City-Regions.
The Bangalore conference, focusing on the system of governance in dynamic city regions, was inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Karnataka, N. Dharam Singh. The keynote address was delivered by Karnataka's Minister for Large & Medium Industry and Small Scale Industry & Infrastructure, P.G.R. Sindhia. The Secretary, Dept. of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Ajay Dua, highlighted the importance of the conference in the context of large scale urbanization and industrial and service sector development with innovations and the need for upscaling response for urban development and Infrastructure growth in the dynamically growing city regions.
UNIDO was represented at the conference by Director of UNIDO's Strategic Research activities, Mr. Frederic Richard who chaired Panel II: Innovative City-Regions and Foreign Investors Linkages, and Industrial Development Officer, Shadia Bakhait, who chaired Panel III: Innovation City-Regions and System of Governance in India. Ms. Bakhait prepared a background paper (view or download paper) for the conference based on information available on the internet on the Indian Dynamic City-Regions of: Bangalore; Chennai; Pune; Vadodara; and Delhi. The paper concentrates on answering the two questions: Why is this city a dynamic city-region? and How did this city reach its present stage of growth?
Apart from organizing the 3rd Dynamic Cities Conference in Mexico in 2007 or 2008, the main jobs given to UNIDO by the Bangalore Declaration are spelt out in Paragraphs 6 and 10.
Paragraph 6 refers to the need to propagate global best practices in innovation in dynamic city regions "and requests UNIDO to take initiatives for documentation, dissemination and propagation to all stakeholder interests among all nations with a view for sharing of experience and expertise". UNIDOScope is happy that it is able to respond in a small way to this request by making most of the presentations and papers presented at the conference available here. As mentioned earlier, the conclusions of the conference on how the governance systems create conditions for industrial development in dynamic city regions is part of the Conference Report available here and on the conference site www.icamt.org/dynamiccityregions/index.asp, along with papers and presentations. The Conference itself was a UNIDO initiative in line with the Para 6 request, as is UNIDO’s Network of Innovation and Learning City-Regions launched at the Shenzhen conference. Drumming up interest in the Network was in fact one of the objectives of the Bangalore Conference.
The other task given UNIDO is in Paragraph 10 of the Bangalore Declaration, where it "emphasizes the need to adopt global bench marking standards to evaluate and measure the degree of innovations in dynamic city regions and utilize the UNIDO Industrial Development Score Board as a model for adoption and adaptation."
UNIDOScope asked UNIDO's Shadia Bakhait to put the Conference in a nutshell. "Firstly, the Bangalore Declaration is quite an achievement", said Ms. Bakhait, "It was adopted to emphasize the important role of innovation and learning in the development of dynamic city-regions. The declaration stressed the importance of technopreneurs on the dynamic development of the cities and how the process of transforming technology / innovation from “know-how” to “show how” for small and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs) needs to be explored. While removing barriers to technology transfer to SMEs, this process should also be gender sensitive. The Bangalore Declaration should be followed by a plan of action. There is still a lot of work to be done."
| The Report on the Conference is available here for viewing or downloading
Presentations and Papers delivered at the conference are listed below, mainly in the order they were made at the conference. In most cases they are available for viewing or download as pdf files. The remaining files will be available in the near future, here and at the Conference site http://www.icamt.org/dynamiccityregions/index.asp.
INDIA
|
UNIDO: Shadia Bakhait, Tel: +43 1 26026 / 4149 E-mail: S.Bakhait@unido.org ICAMT: Mr. Deepak Ballani, E-mail: d.ballani@icamt.org
coming events
Send your comments to the editor: K.Timmins@unido.org