international conference on cluster economic development - Asian ...

collaboration between SMEs, external networks, cluster size, supply and demand
conditions, and innovation capabilities of firms. Based on the experience of Indonesia, the
main determinants of successful clusters are internal network, skills of workers and owners,
external cooperation particularly with traders and suppliers, subcontracting, growth potential
of market served, adaptation capability, and firms or individuals inside the cluster who
pioneer changes or innovation. (Annex G.b).
C. Implementing Sustainable Clustering Projects and Policies: Lessons
Learned from 20 years in the Field by Eric Hansen, President, Economic
Transformations Group, Inc., United States
Clustering works and clusters make money. Clustering projects are strategic interventions to
accelerate competitiveness, formed from ideas that are matched by commitment and action.
Designing successful clustering interventions require looking at economic development as a
regional collaborative process; expansion of the leadership network; and adoption of a
model for a sustainable regional economy where conventional suppliers, clusters, and
products and services interact with their green or greening counterparts. The design is to be
based on the readiness or willingness to take action and compete for resources. It must
combine bottom-up and top-down approaches and provide for easy-to-access funding
mechanisms. (Annex G.c).
D. Panel Reaction and Discussion
The presentations elicited the following comments from the panel and the plenary:
� When we talk of CED, it is important to build on what is there and allowed for
something that can happen organically, rather than create something new.
� How SMEs can move up the value chain, particularly link with <strong>international</strong> suppliers
is one area where policymakers can help.
� It takes time to develop clusters. The clusters we see now have been in the process
of development for quite a while.
� Linkage to dynamic firms and dynamic markets is a key to the development of
clusters. Economic diversification or structural transformation is all about changes.
Asia has millions of enterprises, but wages have remained too low. A key challenge
is to finding out how enterprises can diversify and what is holding them back from
doing so.
• Creating a more direct linkage with market opportunities enables SMEs to move from
imitation and stagnation to innovation. Shift requires breakthrough opportunities.
• Cooperation is crucial for clusters to work out because actors have overlapping
interests.
• There is a huge uncertainty in industrial policy, particularly on what kind of
interventions work and do not work. It is important to have an experimental mindset
in designing interventions and carrying out rigorous evaluations of these
interventions.
• Having a before-and-after evaluation system for programs is not enough.
Comparison with control groups are also needed to fully determine the effects and
impacts of a particular program.
• It would be good to know how the cluster approach has made great impacts in other
countries.
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