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TCI Newsletter March 2006

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TCI newsletter

From:

The Competitiveness Institute <fblunck@competitiveness.org>

=========== The Competitiveness Institute Newsletter ==========
News from the cluster practitioners network Subscribe for free: http://www.competitiveness.org
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The Competitiveness Institute Newsletter, Mar 22, 2006

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* Governance and Companies Involvement in Cluster Initiatives. *

Find out about preliminary program, call for proposals and reduced registration

fees at Lyon 2006 http://www.competitiveness.org/lyon. Suggestions from our

members are very welcome.

Word of the President Lars K. Eklund

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A couple of weeks ago I was in Islamabad for three busy days, together with

Arthur Bayhan, Acting Vice President for Asia Pacific and Executive Director of

the new Competitiveness Support Fund in Pakistan. Apart from working on the

programme for the TCI regional conference in Islamabad on May 14-16 and signing

a contract between TCI and the Fund, we met several times with Mr Omar Ayub

Kahn, Minister of State for Finance, who is the national driver of

competitiveness and was a keynote speaker in the Hong Kong conference. Several

discussions were held with representatives from companies, chambers of commerce,

investors and media. On the last day Mr. Shaukat Aziz, Prime Minister of the

Islamic Republic of Pakistan, hosted an exciting deliberation on how to achieve

results through the Competitiveness Fund, TCI and the regional conference. I was

especially impressed by the close cooperation with media; reporters and

cameramen were around us almost all the time. Several TCI members will be

participating in the Islamabad conference from 14-16 May, don't forget the

conference is open to all of you - so register now at

www.competitiveness.org/article/articleview/756/1/18. (For more information on

the program: http://www.competitiveness.org/article/articleview/752/1/63/)

Due to increases in cost and limited income during the last two years it has

been necessary to cancel the contract with TCI Executive Director Kristofer

Erlandsson. Kristofer was engaged in November 2005 with the task of developing

TCI for the future. It is unfortunate that Kristofer was not able to complete

his mission. It had become clear that TCI would need a number of long term

sponsors before considering further expansion. Following this decision TCI is

focusing on a more modest level of growth that is feasible to manage in the

current financial climate. We have also installed a review committee to analyse

the situation and to propose improvements for the long term development of TCI.

However, thanks to a major contribution from VINNOVA and to the support of a

number of organizational members of TCI, the future of the organization is back

on track. This means we will be able to move ahead effectively with our

activities. I have already significantly increased my time for TCI and we have

active members who are willing to use TCI in innovative ways, including Arthur

Bayhan in Islamabad and Thomas Winther in Accra (Ghana) - as you can see in two

of the articles in this newsletter.

I am also pleased to advise that we are going ahead with the Symposium planned

for April 27-28 on Evaluation. We have gathered a group of very interesting

people to discuss and develop common activities around evaluation. In order to

allow real interaction, we decided to limit the participants for this Barcelona

event, but we will report in our May newsletter on the outcomes of the meeting

and also have plans for a printed report. If you are interested in organizing

such a symposium around a topic which you feel will raise special interest among

TCI members - we would welcome your proposals and are open to discuss these with

you.

The annual conference in Lyon is taking shape. Many speakers have already

applied or been agreed for plenary or breakout sessions. We need more and you

are most welcome to propose breakout sessions connected to the theme "Governance

and companies as cornerstones of cluster Initiatives". Please, contact Frederic

Miribel in Lyon - Miribel @ lyon.cci.fr or Franziska Blunck in TCI Barcelona

office Fblunck @ competitiveness.org or use the application form on the website.

The Lyon-Rhone-Alps region contains some 20 clustering initiatives (Poles de

Competitivite). A good number of them will be in focus during the cluster tours.

A number of the clusters will also be selected to appear in sectorial workshops,

offering opportunities for sectorial exchange of experience with the rest of the

world. The selected sectors will be announced on the conference website, which

will be operational by the end of March. Until then please see the Lyon section

of TCI www.competitiveness.org/lyon.

Lars Eklund

leklund @ competitivenes.org

phone: +46703618875TCI Regional Conference on Competitiveness and Economic

Growth in Asia, Islamabad

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Islamabad will host a TCI Regional Conference on Competitiveness and Economic

Growth for Asia on May 15 - 16, 2006: Taking Stock of Pakistan's Global

Competitiveness.

More ť http://www.competitiveness.org/article/view/752

West Africa prepares to boost the region's international competitiveness.

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With the initiative "partnerships4competitiveness" facilitated by TCI

Commissioner for West Africa, Thomas Winther, key stakeholders of the West

African nations of Ghana and Nigeria will meet to discuss and identify promising

new partnerships to promote clusters, innovation and competitiveness.

More ť http://www.competitiveness.org/article/view/759

Czech Republic's 2006 Cluster Conference

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This conference will be held under the auspices of The Deputy Prime Minister of

the Czech Republic and is organised by CzechInvest. The theme of the Brno

conference is "The role of Innovation in Growing Competitive Clusters".

More ť http://www.competitiveness.org/article/view/760

Aho Group Report "Creating an Innovative Europe"

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The European Commission - faced with the increasing challenges of globalization

- set up in late 2005 a group of four high-level experts, chaired by former

Prime Minister of Finland, Esko Aho, to assess the situation and make proposals

to boost Europe's research and innovation performance.

More ť http://www.competitiveness.org/article/view/765

Third Conference on Innovation Journalism

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The third conference on Innovation Journalism is taking place at Stanford

University (California) on April 5-7, 2006. The opening speaker is Vint Cerf,

Father of the Internet and Chief Internet Evangelist of Google. The event is

organized by David Nordfors, Innovation Journalism Program Leader at Stanford

and also Commissioner of TCI for Innovation Journalism.

More ť http://www.competitiveness.org/article/view/763

New Zealand's 2006 Cluster Conference Wellington

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The theme for the conference being held in Wellington over 23/24 May is "Driving

Local Competitiveness". The conference will offer to international participants

the opportunity to meet with a wide range of New Zealand cluster development

practitioners. 'TCI Oceania' will be formally launched during the conference.

More ť http://www.competitiveness.org/article/view/768

News on the Lyon Conference

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The Lyon conference on October 9-13, 2006 is taking shape: by end of the month

we will have the official website online with more detailed information on the

program and already confirmed speakers.

More ť http://www.competitiveness.org/article/view/767

Call for Papers - Academic Summit Lyon 2006

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Together with our conference organizers we are launching a call for paper for

the 9th Annual Conference of TCI. The conference will follow the structure of

the previous ones like in Hong Kong or Gothenburg.

More ť http://www.competitiveness.org/article/view/742

Proposals for topics and presentations at Lyon conference

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Together with our conference organizers we are inviting you to send us proposals

for presentations and speakers for the 9th Annual Conference of TCI. The

conference will follow the structure of the previous ones like in Hong Kong or

Gothenburg with plenary and breakout sessions during two days and a half.

More ť http://www.competitiveness.org/article/view/755

Chief Executive Position at CreativeSheffield

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Sheffield is England's 4th largest City and was a leader of the industrial era.

With substantial redevelopment now in train, Sheffield is seeking an economic

development leader to position the city on the global economic map.

More ť http://www.competitiveness.org/article/view/766
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