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TCI News letter March 2004

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TCI newsletter

From:

The Competitiveness Institute <bdoesborg[nospamplease]@competitiveness.org>

=========== The Competitiveness Institute News Letter ==========
News from the cluster practitioners network Subscribe for free: http://www.competitiveness.org
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# Constructing competitive advantage #
# TCI's annual Conference Ottawa, Canada #
# September 28 - October 1, 2004 #
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A word from the president
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Last month the Executive Committee of TCI had its mid-year
meeting with the Board of Advisors in Boston. Thanks to Prof.
Michael Porter who graciously offered to host the meeting at
Harvard Business School, we had some fruitful discussions on
TCI's overall strategy, and reviewed progress on the White Book
presented by Thomas Andersson, which is due out in April. The
formal meeting was followed by some in-depth sessions on various
TCI activities such as the upcoming annual conference in Ottawa
and the Cluster Knowledge Service.

Having already travelled to Boston from all parts of the globe,
the Executive Committee, along with Ifor Ffowcs-Williams and
Franziska Blunck, also took the opportunity to travel to Ottawa
to meet with the host of our Annual Conference, where
preparations are already under way. The conference is being held
from September 28 through October 1 at the Fairmont Chateau
Laurier hotel in Ottawa, a historic and very beautiful hotel
located steps away from the Canadian Parliament buildings. The
website for this event has just come online
(www.competitiveness.org/ottawa) with information on the
conference site and some highlights.

Wishing you all the best,

Alec Hansen

Clusters to bring higher wages and cleaner energy to Texas
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The Texas Energy Center (TEC www.txec.org)- a cluster working
towards national and international leadership in energy-related
innovation and commerce - has just recieved a $3.6 million grant
from the Texas Enterprise Fund.
More ť http://www.competitiveness.org/article/view/169

Six centres of excellence for former East Germany
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Under the programme 'Centres for innovation competence. Creating
excellence - ensuring talent' the government of Germany will fund
six centres of excellence. They are located in Dresden, Leipzig,
Greifswald, Rostock, Jena and Ilmenau, all cities in the former
DDR.
More ť http://www.competitiveness.org/article/view/172

Gujarat government continues to foster cluster based economic
development
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The National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) in
Gandhinagar, the capital of the western Indian region of Gurajat,
is initiating more cluster developments due to the impressive
results from other such projects.
More ť http://www.competitiveness.org/article/view/170

Regional conference: Innovation systems and innovative clusters
in Africa
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As a follow up of the TCI Conference on Innovative Clusters held
in Gothenburg in September 2003, the three collaborating
engineering faculties/college at the University of Dar-es-Salaam
in Tanzania (UDSM), Makerere University in Uganda and Eduardo
Mondlane University in Mozambique organized a Regional Conference
on Innovation Systems and Innovation Clusters in Eastern Africa,
under the sponsorship of Sida/SAREC of Sweden.
More ť http://www.competitiveness.org/article/view/177

Course on SME cluster development in Turin, Italy
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UNIDO and the International Training Center of the International
Labour Organization (ITC-ILO) offer a two weeks during course on
SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) cluster development. The
title of this training is "Helping SME clusters in developing
countries meet their potential in the globalised economy".

More ť http://www.competitiveness.org/article/view/173

A practical guide for developing clusters
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The UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has recently
published "A practical guide for developing clusters". This guide
provides a snapshot of existing clusters across the United
Kingdom and informs about the development of clusters policy.
More ť http://www.competitiveness.org/article/view/174

New members
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Marko Jaklic is a consultant and researcher of clusters and
policy making at the University of Ljubljana (Faculty of
Economics) in Slovenia.

Henk Janssens represents our new organisational member from the
Netherlands, the Dutch Maritime Network, a privately organised
network association of the Dutch maritime cluster (Sectors:
Shipping, Ports, Shipbuilding, Dredging, Inland Waterways,
Offshore, Royal Dutch Navy, Marine, Equipment Supply, Water
Sports Industry, Fishing and the Maritime Services Sector).

Miss Ming Li is currently doing a PhD research on clusters in the
CASS Business School, with a focus on clusters performance
measurement and clusters development lifecycle/pattern. She also
has worked in the European Social Fund project 'Building
Entrepreneurial Clusters' which was carried out within the region
of West Midlands in England, having a close link with the
Regional Development Agency - Advantage WestMidlands. The project
focused on four local sectors: ICT, Automobile, Creative
Industries, and Food & Drink. She conducted the secondary
research on the generic features for clusters, but also
contributed to the primary research of the project. Details of
the project can be viewed from this site

Bruce Harris from the United Kingdom is a SME practitioner with
over twenty five years of experience in SME development. For the
last ten years he has worked throughout the former Soviet Union,
Southern Asia, and most recently Mongolia, conducting assignments
for the EU, ADB, and USAID. In Pakistan he advised the Government
on policies to encourage the sporting goods cluster, cotton
processing, and ceramics cluster. In Mongolia he is currently
working with cashmere, leather, tourism and meat clusters as part
of a USAID competitiveness project.
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The Competitiveness Institute - http://www.competitiveness.org

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