The mission of The Competitiveness Institute is to improve the living standards and local competitiveness of regions across the world by enhancing cluster-based development initiatives.
Our focus is primarily on regional clusters – geographic groupings of firms in the same or closely related industries. The Institute’s members are active in 38 countries around the world, and their activity is reflected on many websites, including:
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TCI Members have access to a global network of leading edge practitioners. The Institute is a not-for-profit organization open to economic development organizations and cluster practitioners, with the objectives of:
- Promoting cluster based strategies for economic competitiveness
- Improving the methodologies for reinforcing the competitiveness of clusters
- Raising the professional level of practitioners in cluster development
who coordinate initiatives in their regions:
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The Competitiveness Institute welcomes membership enquiries. Please direct them to TCI’s President, Ifor Ffowcs-Williams president@competitiveness.org |
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TCI’s Annual Conference:
dynamic regions. Clusters are a vital part of a region’s innovation system.
The conference will enable economic development practitioners, researchers and policymakers to explore best practices in the cluster approach to economic development.
The conference will also facilitate the sharing of ideas and the building of alliances to strengthen investment, trade and research links between clusters around the globe.
Conference highlights include:
- 60 papers from world experts ? OECD, World Bank, UNIDO, plus contributions from Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, England, Finland, France, Guatemala, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Jordan, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Wales, USA and across Australia.
- Professor Michael Porter, Harvard Business School, will be contributing a special presentation.
- Keynote addresses will be delivered by the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, the Queensland Premier, and the Ministers for Industry from Catalonia, Spain and Slovenia.
- Sessions will be held on specific clusters including tourism, biotechnology, food/wine, forestry, IT/telecommunications, photonics/optics, environment/water, engineering, and arts/culture. These sessions will facilitate benchmarking between related clusters globally, and the development of commercial links between regions.
In addition to the conference, there will be an opportunity to participate in two pre-conference events:
- Showcase Tour ? an opportunity prior to the conference to learn from the inside about Cairns’ leading edge experiences with eight clusters: Study Cairns, Australian Tropical Foods, Tourism, ICT, Ecofish, and super yachts. The tour will be led by The Cairns Regional Economic Development Agency. (Monday 7th & Tuesday 8th)
- ‘Introduction to clusters’ course ? featuring specialists in cluster development from Hong Kong, Europe, USA and New Zealand (Wednesday 9th).
The Competitiveness Institute’s web site:
Or email: President@competitiveness.org