Clusters and competitiveness - PRO INNO Europe

total in 2005 was 66.7%; in the Basque Country, 66.5%; the Community of Madrid, 63.7%;
and Spain as a whole, 59.1%.
• Secondly, that “new industry” operates with a higher level of productivity than the
averageintheeconomiesinquestion,aresultthatcouldbeexpectedfrommanufacturing
activities but was less predictable in the case of production services.
The change in the structural model in developed societies, which has blurred the boundary
between industry and services and given way to“new industry”both as a concept to replace
obsolete classifications, and as a central sector in the economy, calls for the recognition
of services provided to companies as an integral part of industrial policy. And this is also
expressed in cluster policy, understood as a series of initiatives aimed at improving the
competitive efficiency of a group of companies through their strategic rethinking and
continuous adaptation to the challenges of the global market.
This will be explained in the next few pages, but the Catalan government’s new cluster policy
is based not only on lessons learnt from previous experience and from the suggestions
made by the European Union, but also on the important changes produced in our economy,
requiring a modification in the scope and focus of competitiveness reinforcement initiatives
in order to include production service companies as targets of these policies.
92 CLUSTERS AND COMPETITIVENESS: THE CASE OF CATALONIA (1993-2010)