Europe, Middle East & Africa

Kazakhstan experts shared views on cluster development with Tanzania in an international workshop.

December 14, 2005 marks the launch of a comprehensive cluster training program in Poland. At the kick off conference in Warsaw, TCI Executive Director Kristofer Erlandsson was one of the key note speakers.

Antoni Subirà, Chairman of The Competitiveness Institute's Board of Advisors and Catalonia's former minister of industry, have been invited by European Commissioner for Science and Research Janez Potocnik to join a group that will identify priority actions for the EU to boost its investment in research.

Baltic Development Forum just finished its 7th annual Summit in Stockholm 16-18 October. More than 500 prominent CEO's, prime ministers, mayors, and academic experts met in Stockholm in order to discuss how innovation and competitiveness can help secure future growth and prosperity in the Baltic Sea Region. The summit was co-organised with VINNOVA and hosted by the City of Stockholm and the Swedish government with Nordea as official Summit Partner.

Automotive, aeronautic and train industries benefit from the organisation of a cluster in Rhône Alpes, France. More than 70 participating companies and institutions near Lyon and Grenoble lead in knowledge about Noise, Vibration and Acoustic comfort for the transport industries.

Chambre commerce Lyon

The German management office kompetenznetze.de, in cooperation with the The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and Invest in Germany, recently published four innovation reports on German networks of competence.

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin announced plans in July to spend 1.8 billion US dollars on 63 industrial projects spanning from aerospace to medicine.

Juergen Knorr, who was chief executive officer of Siemens semiconductor division, has taken the position of CEO of Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO), a technology initiative being created at an estimated overall cost of $1.3 billion in the middle-eastern Emirate of Dubai.

The northern town of Biella used to be the home to the finest and most well known wool factories in Italy. Now many of the weaving and dyeing workshops have closed under pressure from cheap foreign competitors.

The city of Johannesburg, in partnership with the University of Witwatersrand, recently launched the Johannesburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE).