Letöltés - Pécsi Tudományegyetem

48 Mezei CecíliaINTERNATIONAL PRACTICE OF LOCAL ECONOMICDEVELOPMENTCecília MezeiThe article deals with international practice in local economic development and paysspecific attention to the theoretical background and basic concepts of this area, to certainlocal development strategies and to economic development practice in a limited number ofadvanced countries.The tools available for local economic development may be suitable for allowing localcommunities to achieve viable, long-term and sustainable development compatiblewith their own individual strengths and capabilities. The ultimate objective of localeconomic intervention is clearly to increase individual incomes and to improve the qualityof life within the local community. To achieve this, however, local actors need tolaunch activities and initiate processes which contribute to the improvement of the localeconomy by changing the structure, the operational mechanism, the technology etc. ofthe economy.Each of the international examples mentioned in the article justifies the need to dealwith the problems of local economic development, as all advanced countries pay specialattention to intervention in local economic development and aim at the improvement ofthe quality of life of the local community, at the rational use of local resources (takingaspects of sustainability into consideration) and at the elaboration of local developmentstrategies.