STRATEGY MEMO

Strategy Memo

To:James Visser, Mayor of Weller City

From:City Manager of Weller City

Subject:Strategy Memo on Economic Development for Weller City

Date:February 25, 2011

In recent years regional and local economies have had to face new and difficult challenges. The process of globalization is rapidly changing the economic status quo, revealing new opportunities and risks for cities, regions and countries around the world.

In this changing context, governments need to rethink their development strategies in order to cope with the ongoing transformation process and enable the advantages derived from it. The new development strategies have brought two significant changes:

First there was a change in the objectives of development strategies. Traditional approaches, from above, based on the provision of infrastructure and in attracting large companies, through incentives and subsidies, have proved ineffective in most of the cases. Instead, new decentralized approaches, structured around mobilizing the economic potential of each area, are coming to light (Wheelen & Hunger, 2003).

Second, the agents in charge of development are also changing. While until recently, policies and development strategies were basically the prerogative of central governments in recent years local and regional governments, together with other public and private institutions at sub-national and international organizations are playing a stronger role active in the design, implementation and monitoring of development strategies. Consequently, the emergence of worldwide local economic development strategies for new and innovative and the future of many regions and localities are increasingly linked to the design and implementation of appropriate strategies that capitalize on the potential and local comparative advantages.

However, not all regions and localities have the same ability to respond to global changes and to implement local economic development strategies (Eisenhardt & Zabaracki, 2002).

The memorandum "Strategies for Local Economic Development" addresses all these issues. It focuses, through selected case studies, in different ways how local and regional governments and economic operators, social and political change can work with the private sector and international organizations to encourage the development of local economies in a world however, clarifying the pros and cons regarding the adoption and implementation of local economic development strategies. It will place particular emphasis on local economic development strategies for developing countries. (Andrews, 2007)

OBJECTIVES

The overall objective of the memorandum is to improve understanding of recent changes in the global arena and to familiarize participants with the benefits and risks of the adoption of local economic development strategies in a changing environment. It is expected that participants will learn new strategies for development and techniques for managing it, such as institution building, investment attraction, networking, development projects, as well as the conceptual framework and the impact of policies on local and regional development and the role of institutions in the development process.

At the end of the memorandum, it is expected that participants will be able to understand the current processes of development, as well as policies and development strategies and institutional strengthening at the local level.

They will also be able to understand how the process of globalization is changing the context in which growth and economic development ...