SWOT Report I - Central Europe

development planning in the former mining region. Within this process some persons provide
active leadership in this institutionalised context (mayor of Oelsnitz). Additionally the region
has a long experience with using EU-funded projects (i.e. INTERREG projects REVI,
READY).
Positive location factors
Generally the Zwickau-Lugau-Oelsnitz region has some favourable location factors. The area
is rather densely populated and part of the Zwickau-Chemnitz agglomeration, where
many important regional institutions, enterprises and cultural infrastructures are located. The
district capital Zwickau is the 4 th largest city in Saxony is close to all major Saxonian transport
connections (motorways and interregional train connections) and has a high-ranking
academic institution with the Westsächsische Hochschule (University of Applied Science)
in place. The region also has a strong economic base with an active automotive cluster in
Zwickau (Volkswagen plant in Mosel), providing the area with a regional growth pole, which
generates investment and jobs.
Weaknesses
Realisation of potentials
Despite the fact that regional actors have discussed various ways to utilise post-mining
potentials in the region, the success of turning such potentials into projects is extremely
limited. Reasons are high infrastructure cost in connection to the unregulated rehabilitation
process in the region and a weak demand in brown field sites for redevelopment, which
both hamper any investment efforts. Additionally, the region is located outside the central
tourism hotspots of the Erzgebirge, which makes the development of such potentials rather
unfavourable.
Actors and networks
Having pointed to the difficulties of realising projects that utilise post-mining potentials,
another weakness lies in the network structure of the region. While all important state level
actors are represented in the decision making process, the importance attributed to post-
mining potentials clearly differs between the actors. While some municipalities have actively
pushed forward various plans to realise projects (i.e. Oelsnitz), other have been more
reluctant (Zwickau). Despite the existing network connections, this has resulted in a lack of
vision and leadership. This is reflected by internal political disagreements, which led to the
SWOT Zwickau-Lugau-Oelsnitz
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