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StartUp Jerusalem, an organisation that aims at creating an economic future for Jerusalem, launched a comprehensive plan for transforming the city into a major international center for industry in the health and life sciences.

Portland is more and more becoming a centre for Linux, the computer software that according to several experts will be neighbour town´s Microsoft's biggest competitor in the future.

On 13 October 2004 the World Economic Forum presented in Geneva, Switzerland The Global Competitiveness Report 2004-2005. For the second year in a row Finland remains the most competitive economy in the world.

A first summary of Conference Evaluations is available and shows an overall very positive feedback.

The Baltic Sea Initiative scrutinized by 25 cluster practitioners in our conference in Ottawa! One of our breakoutsessions discussed this initiative in depth guided by Ifor Ffowcs Williams and Kevin Muphy as facilitators and the speakers Lars Eklund, Christian Ketels and Sylvia Schwaag-Serger.

Perhaps the conference consensus can distilled into 9 points suggested by Elisabeth Rocha and the expert panel.

1. We are using a common vocabulary thanks to the White Book
2. Clustering is ever more important for SME's
3. Clusters are not just about transferring knowledge
4. Cluster policies are a good framework to bring about change
5. Universities don't make clusters but can be a catalyst
6. Clusters and innovation systems are complementary
7. Cluster policies are best organised at local level
8. The focus of attention has to be context specific
9. Agreement on the success factors of cluster initiatives

Details are available in Elisabeth's summary presentations of the white book and the conference.

You can also find a selection of Photos taken during the conference on the conference website.

Presentations are available for members only in the program part of the website. You will have to login on the main website to access them.

NRC's Acting President; Vice-President, Technology and Industry Support, National Research Council of Canada

A collection of papers, presentations and other files of the Ottawa 2004 conference.

Pune, the second largest city in the state of Maharashtra, India has received a formal government approval to set up an auto cluster, making it the first cluster of its kind in the country.

U.K. Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott announced a government investment to match funding from three regional development agencies to boost employment, transport, housing and tourism in the North of England over the next 20 years. The objective is to close the prosperity gap between the North and the richer southern part of the country.