Industry Clusters and Economic Development Investment Promotion
br...@gdi-solutions.com
and reliable information about industry clusters.
For example, in the Photonics and Optics sector, SPIE (International
Society for Optical Engineering www.spie.org ) maintains a website with
global cluster information at
http://www.photonicsclusters.org
Similarly, other industry associations such as SEMI (Semiconductor
Equipment & Materials International, at www.semi.org ) maintain
directories of clusters for their members, in this case because
equipment and material companies may typically locate near the
semiconductor wafer fabs and assembly and test facilities supported by
their projects.
As another obvious example, the automotive industry tends to cluster
around major OEM assembly and Tier 1 supplier plants, and databases are
available to identify such patterns.
Many economic development initiatives of countries, states, provinces,
metro areas and even local communities have been based in recent years
on cluster development strategies.
National industrial policies have sometimes set out to create new
clusters through government investment and incentives for businesses in
"target" industries deemed to have high potential for future job
creation and high value jobs. More often, however, there is some
analysis of an existing base of business which evolved for some
identifiable local advantage, and then an effort is made to build upont
that base.
For example, a quick look at how many organizations have been
"targeting" the biotechnology or life sciences, pharmaceutical, and
medical products industries in recent years seems to show that the
definition of a "cluster" is often stretched beyond credibility. There
were, for instance, several hundred investment promotion agencies from
all over the world seeking to attract investment at BIO 2004.
We are familiar with many databases, professional associations, and
other sources of information about industry cluster patterns worldwide
because of the nature of our work in support of foreign direct
investment projects, but welcome suggestions of additional sources
which can be openly shared as executives and their advisors try to plan
their own capital investment projects in relevant locations, which
often involves some consideration of industry cluster patterns, and in
particular the recent flow of projects in such clusters.