Home » News » Conferences and events

Basque Country, 12th International Conference on Competitiveness

10-11 July 2008, University of Deusto, San Sebastian, Spain
Orkestra-Basque Institute of Competitiveness and the Department of Trade, Industry and Tourism of the Basque Government, in collaboration with TCI (The Competitiveness Institute) brought together nearly 30 European government experts on competitiveness at the San Sebastian campus of Deusto University on 10th and 11th of July 2008.

The conference was a unique opportunity to share experiences and knowledge, to facilitate the generation of ideas and to promote debate among experts representing countries such as Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Portugal and Spain.

The conference focused on comparative evaluation and measurement of competitiveness; it was structured in 6 sessions in which experts presented specific experiences and challenges ahead for policy making on competitiveness.

Mari Jose Aranguren, head of Orkestra’s research area on Clusters, Regional Development and Innovation and James Wilson, senior researcher in the same area, welcomed participants and chaired the meeting.

Ken Warwick, Deputy Chief Economic Advisor of the UK Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform made, an introduction to the network and in the first session Alberto Alberdi, Advisor and Vice-Regional Minister in the Department of Industry, Commerce and Tourism of the Basque Government, presented the Basque Country’s case followed by a presentation from the Vice-President of the Development Agency for the region of Northern Portugal.

The second set of presentations dealt with different drivers of competitiveness, such as: female entrepreneurial activity, analyzed by representatives of the Swedish Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications; the contribution of high-growth firms to the UK economy, explained by members of its Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform; and the role of cities in fostering national competitiveness presented by representatives of FORFAS (National Policy Advisory Board for Enterprise, Trade, Science, Technology and Innovation), Ireland.

The participation of the Nordic countries focused on innovation policy and competitiveness: members of the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry presented the Norwegian experience, and members of the Finnish Ministry of Trade and Industry presented measures under their new strategy on innovation. The final presentation of this session by Juan Manuel Esteban, coordinator of the Basque Government’s Cluster Policy and TCI President, underlined the importance of improving Basque firms’ innovation and competitiveness through cooperation, focusing on strategic challenges that cannot be overcome by one firm on its own.

On Friday, a session devoted to clusters and competitiveness looked into the evaluation of clusters and regional networks and the relationship between cluster policy and competitiveness, topics featuring presentations by the Director of Germany’s Competence Networks Agency and delegates from the Minister of Innovation, University and Enterprise of the Generalitat de Catalunya, respectively.

The concluding session focussed on benchmarking of national and regional competitiveness. The Danish approach on comparative evaluation of competitiveness and competitiveness policy was presented by members of the Danish Authority of Enterprise and Construction. This was followed by a presentation from Mari Jose Aranguren, Juan José Gibaja, Mikel Navarro and James Wilson from Orkestra, which focussed on the challenges in measuring regional competitiveness, an increasingly significant theme in the context of the growing influence of regions in policy-making.


For more information about the event, please contact:

ORKESTRA, Basque Institute of Kompetitiveness and Development

Dr. James R. Wilson, Senior Researcher
Mundaiz, 50 · E-20012 San Sebastián · SPAIN
tel.: +34 943 29 73 27 (ext. 535) fax: +34 943 27 93 23
e-mail: jwilson @ orkestra.deusto.es
web: www.orkestra.deusto.es