TRIPLE HELIX noms.pmd

P-023Local government's role in local economic developmentAlain Jorda, Ajuntament de Manresa (Manresa City Council), SpainEurotowns, the european medium sized cities networkSubtheme: Government and Public policy in the triple helix eraKeywords: Government's roles, local government, medium towns, knowledge economy, local leadershipIntroductionPoint 1. Europe, countries and regions are developing new economy development policies. However, smaller areas, like mediumsizedtowns or, even, counties, are not specially targeted by those wider areas policies. Moreover, this national policies try, atbest, to spread knowledge and technology infrastructures throughout their territory in such a way that most of the regions geta part of the funds and infrastructures. But, the result is, when you have a look inside each region, that, most of the time, there'sa concentration of the relevant infrastructures -universities, science and technology parks,....- around one or two main cities ineach region leaving most of the territory "knowledge-empty".Point 2. Knowledge economy means that the new essential raw material is knowledge. And, fortunately, this new raw materialcomes from every human brain. So, that's a big opportunity for those territories which have no other sources of wealth.Point 3. A knowledge economy means that a brilliant idea with an economic potential can appear and flourish anywhere. Butthis will be true only if some knowledge friendly environment is available at that place. And that means that every country shouldtake advantage, as much as possible, of the raw materials it has.Point 4. Finally, there's an evidence that you cannot have a university or a science park in every town.State of the art: an example, Catalonia, a spanish regionLet's speak about Catalonia as an example: a Spanish region with 7,5M people, with Barcelona being the capital with 1,5Mpeople and a metropolitan area close to 4,5M people. But there are 15 other towns over 75.000 people in Catalonia. It's clearthat there's a point, for those local -town- governments, to see how they can work efficiently for the economic development oftheir "small" areas taking into account that there is so a big attractive center who tends to absorb most of the resources -talent,funds, infrastructures- addressed to Catalonia.Therefore, we are in front of a paradox. The new economy is based on knowledge which is a resource available to every country.Countries just need to develop it -the knowedge-, spread knowledge infrastructures and stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship.But, in practice, this is done basically in the metropolitan areas of bigger cities, leaving most of the territory, and much of thepeople, out of this "knowledge economy evolution". How can we solve this paradox? Are we able to arise and grow up newinitiatives to develop local economies in almost any place in a given country? Do the local government’s have a specail role init? Which is this role?Methodology, findings, contributions and implicationsLocal administration has a key role in answering this question. There's a need of someone stimulating the knowledge economyat the town or county level and this can only be the local administration -mainly, city councils-. But, as those administrationsdon't use to have funds for economic development, they need to use other means to get an efficient economic policy.Some questions need to be answered: Which is the role of the local government's -city council- for those medium towns? Howcan they drive their towns economies towards a better and more competitive future? Which are the means they can use to reachtheir objectives?Madrid, October 20, 21 & 22 - 2010172