LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR TBILISI ... - LED

change, leadership and vision shown by city representatives, its economic,
social and cultural diversity as well as its ability to make effective use of
human capital are the conditioning foundations of high performing city.
There are of cities that present high performance which are not
geographically centrally located and are not national capital cities. There is no
single model for creating high performing cities. Examples cited included
places as varied as market driven American cities like San Jose, supported by
government Asiatic cities as Singapore and somewhere in between the
European cities such as Dublin, Barcelona or Scandinavian cities. High
performance can be achieved under a variety of governance arrangements,
but usually results in high quality of life, better infrastructure and favorable
business environment with skilled workforce.
The fact that some sectors achieve a critical mass in a city may be more
important than
the location of a city itself. San Jose’s global position in the research and
commercialization of new technologies is not based on its location but on the
fact that this sector demonstrates a high degree of clustering and innovation,
which makes the city attractive to the others.
There are some obstacles on the way to a well managed competitive city that
should be taken into a count:
1. the importance of developing effective metropolitan policies and engaging
in long term spatial planning,
2. new strategies require strong civic leadership and vision to convince
public to changes,
3. weak citizen participation is a current and future problem and may result
in declining identification with governance structures and policies,
4. coordination and cooperation between different levels (region,
neighborhood) , sectors and partners (public, private and community
organizations or decision makers, professionals and stakeholders),
5. the question how far local government should be involved in local
economy.
These and other important issues should be discussed with a local
stakeholders at the beginning when the framework is constructed. The
agreement will create boundaries for all policies and define public role in city
development activities.
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